Wagner - Orchestral Works [Barenboim-Orchestre De Paris] Here's something different for me, a disc dedicated to the Orchestral parts of Wagner's Operas, unlike say Rossini and Beethoven, who both had well defined Overtures to the start of certain works, and nicely fit onto a disc or two, Wagner's orchestral works are cut from bits all over the place in his Operas, of different lengths and different pigeon holes you would place them in, this makes it harder to create a satisfying recital of his orchestral music, but here certainly is a very nicely chosen bunch of excerpts, maybe Barenboim leans too much on Tristan Und Isolde, and a bit more variety would have been very welcome.
Daniel Barenboim is an Argentine Conductor and Pianist, very much straddling two jobs, he still records new solo Piano recitals, but i guess his main job is Conducting, he is now 68 years old, and this disc was recorded in 1982 & 1983, the front cover booklet illustration is by Victor Vasarely, called 'Cheydt', a really nice geometric design of blues and reds, and the red lettering very much fits into this theme, i like these 3D Classics by DG.
I really enjoyed all of these pieces, of course the last piece on the disc is the most famous, and a real barnstormer, no wonder it's left to last, it makes a rousing finale, but the piece i liked the most is actually track 5, the Prelude to act 1 of 'The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg', i guess in essence it's very much an Overture,
Here's Daniel Barenboim conducting the Prelude to Act 1 of the Mastersingers Of Nuremburg on YouTube.
