Weber: Oberon Overture

Roger Norrington was the first conductor to rediscover the original sound of the Romantic era. His recordings of famous overtures from Schubert to Wagner showed how fresh, indeed revolutionary an orchestra sounded in the early 19th century. Thanks to his careful studies of the instruments and performing practice of the time, Norrington brings out the poetry of the music in an unprecedented way, making his readings into true milestones of interpretation.

Klaus Florian Vogt is Bayreuth´s leading tenor – he has a unique voice, perfect technique and last but not least the perfect look for a leading man in the works of Wagner.

He had a triumphant breakthrough success as "Lohengrin" at the world famous Bayreuth Wagner festival in the Summer of 2011. Major media acclaimed his singing as "the third wonder of Bayreuth" and the "...best Lohengrin ever".

Klaus Florian Vogt sings in all major opera houses of the world. In 2012, he will star in new productions in Tokyo (Lohengrin), Munich (Valkyrie) and Barcelona (Florentine Tragedy). He will also feature in roles at Bayreuth.

Helden ("Heroes") is Vogt´s first album for Sony Classical, where he is exclusively signed, and is his first recital recording. The CD shows major pieces linked with him, of course Wagner and the famous "Grahlserzählung" in Lohengrin, but there are also beautiful arias by Weber, Flotow, Korngold and Lortzing – and last not least also by Mozart.

During the 1950s, Karl Böhm made a handful of orchestral recordings for Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker of, music by, among others, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms Schubert and Weber. The Brahms Symphony is performed with sweep and with classical poise and the music is clearly in the Viennese players’ blood (after all, they premiered the symphony in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, the very location where this recording was made). It receives its first international release on Decca CD. Weber’s star has, today, rather receded from our view, his name kept alive by but a handful of pieces. Yet he was, in some ways, a heralder of the dawn of the Romantic tradition and Böhm’s affectionate readings of these Overtures now reappear in the catalogue.

Recording producer: Victor Olof

Recording engineer: Cyril Windebank

Recording location: Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria, May 1951 (Weber), June 1953 (Brahms)

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world and the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann. This CD brings together all of Ansermet’s Weber recordings for Decca.

Weber’s overtures possess an irresistible panache, being a perfect blend of popular and more highbrow styles. If his operas have proved largely unstageable, their overtures have maintained enduring popularity in the romantic orchestral repertoire. In fact, few were better equipped to distil the emotional and atmospheric essence of romantic lyric drama in terms of the orchestral overture than Weber. As Edward Dent once intimated, Weber never quite overcame a tendency to trump his vocal aces with an orchestral court card. But in the overtures he is the complete master. In them he spun poetic and intensely imaginative summaries of their ensuing dramas.

The British LP issue of the overtures omitted the Jubel (Jubilee) Overture, here restored to circulation on its CD reissue. The coupling, the composer’s Bassoon Concerto, features Henri Helaerts (1907-2001), the principal bassoonist of this orchestra for nearly fifty years. Helaerts was a very popular figure in Geneva, where he founded and conducted Les Cadets de Genève, a musical group comprised of generations of wind instrumentalists. He was one of the principal representatives of the French bassoon with its very characteristic sonority, sadly disappearing today.

"Ansermet is always successful with Weber's allegros by reason of his orchestra's lively playing and his own sense of buoyant rhythm… sheer pleasure, especially the sense of enjoyment in the playing of Preciosa and the remarkably deft performance of Abu Hassan, a piece notoriously difficult to play really cleanly. " Gramophone

A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remains one of the Decca catalogue's richest legacies, and more than half of this collection is being released on CD for the first time.

Martin Spangenberg’s performances reveal the genuine delicacy of this music.

His meticulous consideration of tempos reveals new aspects of this magnificent music.

Also included are the overtures to Beherrscher der Geister and Oberon.