Jaromir Weinberger (1896-1967)
Valdštejn (Wallenstein) (Musikalische Tragödie in sechs Bildern)
(1937)
CPO (2 CDs) (15.06.2012 | 7:30 pm)
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Wiener Singakademie
Cornelius Meister
4.12.2017
Roman Trekel - Wallenstein, Herzog zu Friedland
Martina Welschenbach - Thekla, seine Tochter
Ralf Lukas Octavio - Piccolomini, Generalleutnant / Dragoner
Daniel Kirch - Max Piccolomini, sein Sohn
Roman Sadnik - Graf Terzky
Dagmar Schellenberger - Gräfin Terzky
Edwing Tenias - Illo, Wallensteins Vertrauter / Kapuziner
Georg Lehner - Buttler
Benno Schollum - Wrangel, schwedischer Obert / Wachtmeister
Oliver Ringelhahn - Gordon / Kürassier / Soldat / Erster Kürassier
Dietmar Kerschbaum - Graf Questenberg / Hauptmann
Nina Berten - Marketenderin
Claudia Goebl - Mädchen
Johannes Schwendinger - Jäger / Bedienter
Wallenstein – A Forgotten Opera
In 1927 the Czech composer Jaromír Weinberger celebrated a
sensational success with Schwanda the Bagpiper. Then, in
1938, one year after the premiere of Wallenstein in Vienna,
Weinberger had to flee from the Nazis.
He did not have much
success in the United States, suffered while in exile, and
took his own life in 1967. Wallenstein was completely
forgotten, certainly also because of the great challenges
posed by its performance.
Cornelius Meister, the principal
conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, writes,
»Along with a large chorus and orchestra, there are numerous
stage musicians who are divided into three groups, even so
as to include table music with a harpsichord, a large
military band, and trumpets.
Weinberger has a different
style featured in each of the six scenes, and the absolutely
indescribable manifoldness extends from the operetta,
atonality, and music of folk character to romantically
ramified counterpoint, so that one almost has the impression
that several composers are at work.
The opera is based on
Friedrich Schiller’s trilogy of the same name on the subject
of the downfall of the famous General Wallenstein during the
Thirty Years’ War.