Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra Performing Wagner

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Soprano Measha Brueggergosman Joins in for a Ravishing Account of the Wesendonck Lieder, Available July 27th, 2010

Deutsche Grammophon continues its successful relationship with the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra and its chief conductor Franz Welser-Möst with this thrilling all-Wagner album. Recorded live in Cleveland, this recording showcases one of America’s premier orchestras in Wagner’s romantic and virtuosic music, available July 27, 2010.

The orchestra delivers powerful performances of the Lohengrin Preludes (Act I and Act III), The Ride of the Valkyries, the Rienzi and Die Meistersinger von Nürmburg Overtures, and the orchestral version of opera’s non plus ultra of love’s power to transfigure, the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde.

The centerpiece of the concert features soprano Measha Brueggergosman performing Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. According to The Plain Dealer, “Measha Brueggergosman again proved a master interpreter of this score, melding to her radiant voice a profound dramatic sensibility. The singer applied a distinctive vocal character to each piece, taking cues from the text to evoke specific physical and emotional states with stunning likeness.” The entire evening was judged a success and DG was proud to be on-hand to record the event.

This unlikely program is not considered standard fare for most American orchestras: “It’s the sort of music you don’t often find on the menu of a straight-forward symphony orchestra,” says conductor Franz Welser-Möst. Yet, maybe this type of program should be more popular. According to The Plain Dealer, “even hardened anti-Wagnerians could not have resisted” and the concert “likely made legions of new Wagner fans.”

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