R. Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde

She sent him “cute poems about angels and dreams, also already verschopenhauert; he made a careful melody to it, so as not to break the narrow little-girl dreams of pain and its beauty”. In “The Memorable Life of Richard Wagner,” Ludwig Marcuse describes the genesis of the love between Mathilde Wesendonck and Richard Wagner and the songs associated with it thus. “Take my whole soul to the morning greeting!” – so raved the composer in a written message to his beloved. A fateful letter, because Minna Wagner intercepted it and subsequently undermined the idyll One of the most interesting voices of our time presents here her first Wagner album: Anne Schwanewilms, who just made her successful debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, sings the Wesendonck Lieder, the hall aria of Elisabeth from Tannhäuser and, for you for the very first time, Isolde’s Liebestod.

“The Vienna RSO under Cornelius Meister plays with high dynamic differentiation, achieving great transparency (…) A hearty, excellent follow-up to the Wagner Year 2013.” (Audio, June 2014)

“Accompanied with energy by the ORF Symphony Orchestra Vienna under Cornelius Meister, she scores in the ,,Wesendonck-Lieder,” for example, with piani wonderfully spun on the breath.” (FONO FORUM, July 2014)