HUMPERDINCK

Marchenmusiken, Hansel und Gretel, der blaue Vogel, Donroschen

1. Hänsel und Gretel - Prelude

2. Der Blaue Vogel - Vorspiel: Der Weinachstraum

3. Der Blaue Vogel - Sternenreigen

4. Der Blaue Vogel - Königskinder - Konzertouvertüre

5. Die Königskinder - Einleitung zum 2.Akt: 'Hellafest, Kinderreigen'

6. Die Königskinder - Einleitung zum 3.Akt: 'Verdorben-Gestorben' - 'Spielmanns letzter Gesang'

7. Dornröschen - Introduction

8. Dornröschen - Ballade

9. Dornröschen - Irrfahrten

10. Dornröschen - Das Dornenschloss

11. Dornröschen – Festklänge

Bamberger Symphoniker / Karl Anton Rickenbacher

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a resurgence of interest in fairy-tales as suitable subjects for plays, opera and ballet. Engelbert Humperdinck scored a notable success (especially in his native Germany) with his fairy-tale opera Hänsel und Gretel, based on a story by the brothers Grimm. A great admirer of Wagner, with whom Humperdinck worked on preparations for the premiere of Parsifal at Bayreuth during the 1881-82 season, he was also a distinguished teacher (in which capacity he was active in Spain as well as in Germany).

Hänsel und Gretel, a setting of a libretto by the composer’s sister, Adelheid Wette, received its first performance under the baton of Richard Strauss at the Weimar court theatre on 23 December 1893, and was hailed as a masterwork by Gustav Mahler. The influence of Wagner can be heard in this quintessentially German work, in which the composer reveals his total mastery of the art of orchestration.

The same mastery can also be heard in his incidental music for a German production of Maurice Maeterlinck’s fairy play The Blue Bird first performed in Berlin on 23 December 1912, as well as in Humperdinck’s three-act fairy-tale opera Dornröschen (inspired by The Sleeping Beauty, one of Charles Perrault’s most famous stories), which received its premiere in Frankfurt in 1902.

Virgin Classics 6285842