Wagner: Parsifal: Good Friday Music (So ward es uns verhiessen, Karfreitagszauber, Karfreitagsmusik)

CD 1 rolls off with The Ride of the Valkyries, CD 2 with The Flying Dutchman Overture – there’s over 150 minutes of Wagner on this star compilation.

Of course, Wagner also wrote big ballads as well, so there’s the Siegfried Idyll, the Tristan Prelude and Liebestod and the ethereal Prelude to Lohengrin

The big names are there, above all Karajan, Böhm, Kubelik and Jochum. It’s a mainly orchestral set, with just the Lohengrin Bridal Chorus and two extracts from The Ring (conducted by Karajan) to remind you that Wagner was writing operas.

The perfect Wagner starter-set!

Under the dual influences of Goethe and Berlioz, Wagner wrote A Faust Overture in Paris. Years later, in 1855, he returned to the work, revising it to create an even greater sense of drama and narrative conviction. In the excerpts from his romantic opera Lohengrin we hear the visionary Prelude to Act I and the Act III Prelude, which includes the well-known Wedding March. Elsa’s Dream is sung by the internationally acclaimed soprano, Alessandra Marc. The orchestral music from Parsifal contains some of the most transcendent music Wagner ever wrote. Volumes 1 and 3 in this series are available on 8572767 and 8572769.