Program
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
Der Ring Ohne Worte | The Ring without Words
Symphonic suite based on the opera tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung
Compiled by Lorin Maazel (1987)
I Das Rheingold |The Rhinegold
II. Die Walküre | The Valkyrie
III. Siegfried
IV. Götterdämmerung | The Twilight of the Gods
The musicAeterna Orchestra
Conductor Teodor Currentzis
Details
Full Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung in 70 minutes: the musicAeterna Orchestra, conducted by Teodor Currentzis, will perform the famous symphonic suite The Ring without Words, which was compiled in 1987 by conductor Lorin Maazel.
The structure of the suite strictly follows the chronology of the musical events of the Wagner cycle — from the introduction to The Rhinegold to the last chords of The Twilight of the Gods. The Ring without Words preserves all the main leitmotifs of the tetralogy, and the music of each opera is presented in proportion to the place and time it occupies in the cycle. Famous symphonic canvases such as The Ride of the Valkyries, Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Siegfried’s Funeral March are harmoniously interwoven into the overall course of the musical action. Lorin Maazel focused on the orchestral fragments of the tetralogy, while setting aside the ubiquitous Wagnerian vocal parts. He entrusted some of them to instruments that duplicate the singing material in the original scores, while others were given characteristic timbres: the flute became the voice of Sieglinde, the trombone personifies Sigmund and Siegfried, and the bass clarinet personifies the giant Fafner.
Lorin Maazel’s Suite is not the first and not the last experiment in creating concert digests from Wagner’s titanic operatic works. The first ‘compiler’ was the composer himself: for example, he combined the introduction and finale of the opera Tristan for concert performances, which he conducted even before the premiere. Wagner was followed by countless conductors, both famous and unknown, in his era and nowadays.
The Ring without Words, like other symphonic fantasies based on Wagner’s operatic music, pursues more than just practical goals. In the absence of vocal parts, characters, or a linear plot to follow, listeners are invited to immerse themselves fully in the orchestra — the true protagonist of Wagnerian operatic universe. His dense, colourful, infinitely changeable and inventive symphonic writing is similar to an ocean. It is within the depth of this musical ocean is where all emotions and feelings are born, all mental movements, all motives that urge opera characters to act. Watching the currents, storms and calms of this ocean is a journey that stands as a meaningful experience in its own right.