Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner was one of the most revolutionary figures in the history of music, a composer who made pivotal contributions to the development of harmony and musical drama that reverberate even today. Indeed, though Wagner occasionally produced successful music written on a relatively modest scale, opera -- the bigger, the better -- was clearly his milieu, and his aesthetic is perhaps the most grandiose that Western music has ever known.
Early in his career, Wagner learned both the elements and the practical, political realities of his craft by writing a handful of operas which were unenthusiastically, even angrily, received. Beginning with Rienzi (1838-40) and The Flying Dutchman (1841), however, he enjoyed a string of successes that propelled him to immortality and changed the face of music. His monumental Ring cycle of four operas -- Das Rheingold (1853-54), Die Walküre (1854-56), Siegfried (1856-71) and Götterdämmerung (1869-74) -- remains the most ambitious and influential contribution by any composer to the opera literature. Tristan and Isolde (1857-59) is perhaps the most representative example of Wagner's musical style, which is characterized by a high degree of chromaticism, a restless, searching tonal instability, lush harmonies, and the association of specific musical elements (known as leitmotifs, the flexible manipulation of which is one of the hallmarks of Wagner's music) with certain characters and plot points. Wagner wrote text as well as music for all his operas, which he preferred to call "music dramas."
Wagner's life matched his music for sheer drama. Born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, he began in the early 1830s to write prolifically on music and the arts in general; over his whole career, his music would to some degree serve to demonstrate his aesthetic theories. He often worked as a conductor in his early years; a conducting engagement took him to Riga, Latvia, in 1837, but he fled the country in the middle of the night two years later to elude creditors. Wagner as a young man had some sympathy with the revolutionary movements of the middle 19th century (and even the Ring cycle contains a distinct anti-materialist and vaguely socialist drift); in the Dresden uprisings of 1849 he apparently took up arms, and he had to leave Germany when the police restored order. Settling in Zurich, Switzerland, he wrote little for some years, but evolved the intellectual framework for his towering, mature masterpieces. Wagner returned to Germany in 1864 under the protection and patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria; it was in Bayreuth, near Munich, that he undertook the construction of an opera house (completed in 1876) built to his personal specifications and suited to the massive fusion of music, staging, text, and scene design that his later operas entailed. Bayreuth became something of a shrine for the fanatical Wagnerites who carried the torch after his death; it remains the goal of many a pilgrimage today. His attitude toward Jews was deeply ambivalent (he believed, mistakenly, that his stepfather was Jewish), but some of his writings contain anti-Semitic elements that have aroused considerable controversy among opera lovers, especially in view of Adolf Hitler's apparent predilection for the composer's music.
© Rovi Staff /TiVo
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Wagner: Das Liebesmahl Der Apostel (The Love-Meal of the Apostles), WWV 69: Overture [Digitally Remastered]
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Estonian State Choir, Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Ópera - Editado por EMG Classical el 16 oct. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
My morning with Wagner
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 5 sep. 2020
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Entry Of The Gods Into Valhalla (From The Opera Das Rheingold) Arr. For Piano By Louis Brassin
Richard Wagner, Elise Williams
Clásica - Editado por Pastel Records Canada el 15 jun. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masters Of Classical Music
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Vassil Kazandjiev & Gyorgy Lehel
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC. el 1 dic. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Magic Fire Music
Clásica - Editado por Cobra Entertainment LLC. el 1 dic. 2009
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Soundtrack for a Storm
Clásica - Editado por Paradise Classical el 13 jul. 2017
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Albumblatt, WWV 94 (Arr. for Violin and Piano by August Wilhelmj)
Clásica - Editado por Azul Music el 24 feb. 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Lohengrin: Act I: Prelude (Digitally Remastered)
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pešek
Ópera - Editado por EMG Classical el 16 oct. 2015
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Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries (Alex Sauvage Remix)
House - Editado por 9Ninerecords el 2 jul. 2021
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The Classical Collection - Wagner - Obras maestras de la ópera
Clásica - Editado por ClassicalPirosDigital el 12 jun. 2015
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Autumnal Wagner
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 10 oct. 2020
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Road trip music
Clásica - Editado por Paradise Classical el 14 jun. 2017
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Wagner: Magic Fire Music & Wotan's Farewell - Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 17; Preludes, Op. 28; Waltzes, Op. 64 - Canning: Fantasy On A Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan
Clásica - Editado por Everest Records el 29 jul. 2016
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Sigfried Idyll
Richard Wagner, Orchestra da camera Kandinskij, Aldo Lombardo conductor
Clásica - Editado por Kandinskij Gold el 22 oct. 2021
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Great Voices Of The Opera Vol. 11
Clásica - Editado por Documents el 1 sep. 2008
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Der fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman)
Ópera - Editado por Opera d'Oro el 14 mar. 2006
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A Classical Compendium: Wagner
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 17 sep. 2022
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Wagner: Overtures
State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Clásica - Editado por Pipeline Music el 28 nov. 2006
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Classics In The Pop Of Treatments. Wagner - The Best
Clásica - Editado por Russian Compact Disc el 7 jun. 1998
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Classical Pieces
State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Clásica - Editado por Pipeline Music el 8 jun. 2006
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