Richard Wagner's Piano Songs (Richard Wagnersche Klavierlieder)

aufführung 26. August 1999

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Rundfunk-Chor Berlin

Mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis
Baritone Thomas Mohr

Conductor Semyon Bychkov

After having orchestrated the Wesendonck-Lieder, I was also encouraged to tackle the remainder of Wagner’s song settings. I soon, however, established that I found it impossible to hold myself back and to proceed no further than an effortless recreation of these works in an orchestral texture with Classical Romantic instrumentation. As a result, numerous alterations can be detected which were not undertaken arbitrarily, but prompted by artistic curiosity: for example changes of metre, tonal and tessitura transformation, and the realisation and completion of the two fragments “Extase” and “La tombe dit à la rose”. I have also occasionally added new, supplementary musical lines. All these features sprang from my desire to focus a spotlight on the allusive beauty of this music which is frequently concealed in the piano accompaniment. During this process, my thoughts often wandered to the great composer himself, wondering what he would perhaps have thought and said if he had been looking over my shoulder to pass judgement on my interventions and alterations.

Hans Werner Henze