Arrival with Bruckner and Wagner
Christian Thielemann conducts Bruckner’s Seventh and Wagner’s Liebesmahl
Performance of Wagner’s “Das Liebesmahl der Apostel” to mark Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday on May 18, 2013 in the Frauenkirche, Dresden
© Photo: Matthias Creutziger
Bruckner and Wagner were therfore two cornerstones
Christian Thielemann’s inauguration as the new principal conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle of Dresden was a long- awaited and much-anticipated event. In 2003 the Berliner conducted the orchestra for the first time in a performance of Johannes Brahms’s German Requiem, marking the 58th anniversary of the bombing that left Dresden in ruins.
In 2009 he stood in at short notice to conduct Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony in a performance that was highly acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, enthralling everyone and prompting Thielemann’s immediate appointment as principal conductor for the 2012/13 season onwards (the recording of this concert has been released as volume 31 of the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series).
“Arrived”: Poster to mark the appointment of Christian Thielemann in Dresden (2012)
Repro: Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Since then Christian Thielemann has opened every Staatskapelle season in the Semperoper with a symphony by the Austrian composer. To mark his inauguration in September 2012 he chose the monumental Seventh Symphony, a live recording of which is presented on this release.
Another significant event during Thielemann’s first Dresden season was the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner in 2013, an occasion that was celebrated in Dresden on a grand scale.
Thielemann, a principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival since 2000 and Music Director there since summer 2015 (the latter title having been created especially for him), paid tribute to his historic forerunner at the head of the Dresden Staatskapelle with several special concerts and opera performances, including a new production of Parsifal at the Salzburg Easter Festival, where he and the Staatskapelle are now the resident musicians.
In the Dresden Frauenkirche he has performed Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (The Holy Supper of the Apostles) – a rarely performed work written by Wagner to mark the highly symbolic building of the church in 1843 and first conducted by Thielemann, one of the leading Wagner interpreters of our time, to mark the second centenary of the composer’s birth.
Bruckner and Wagner were therefore two cornerstones of Thielemann’s first season in Dresden and this selection sums up his work at the head of the Staatskapelle to date. Besides well-known works and the stock repertoire that the orchestra has kept up since time immemorial, Thielemann has continuously added rarely performed works to the Semperoper repertory, works with historical links to and premiered by the former court orchestra (the works of Ferruc- cio Busoni, Hans Pfitzner and Max Reger can now be heard in volume 34 of Edition Staatskapelle Dresden).
Thielemann’s presence at the Semperoper and the Frauenkirche has also demonstrated that he has truly “arrived” in Dresden, as had already been announced on posters displayed right across the city.
Tobias Niederschlag
| → | Bruckner’s Seventh Symphonie |
| → | Wagner’s “The Holy Supper of the Apostles” |
| → | PDF Programmheft der Staatskapelle Dresden zum Wagner Geburtstagskonzert |
| → | Content CD-Box vol. 38 |
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.