Wagner: Tristan und Isolde Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Marek Janowski

• 1 Act I: Prelude 10:25
• 2 Scene 1: Westwarts schweift der Blick (A Young Sailor, Isolde, Brangane) 05:26
• 3 Scene 2: Frisch weht der Wind (A Young Sailor, Isolde, Brangane, Tristan, Kurwenal, Sailors) 09:40
• 4 Scene 3: Weh! Ach wehe! Dies zu dulden! (Brangane, Isolde) 18:31
• 5 Scene 4: Auf! Auf! Ihr Frauen! (Kurwenal, Isolde, Brangane) 07:27
• 6 Scene 5: Begehrt, Herrin (Tristan, Isolde, Brangane, Kurwenal) 25:11
• 7 Act II: Prelude 01:48
• 8 Scene 1: Horst du sie noch? (Isolde, Brangane) 13:09
• 9 Scene 2: Isolde! Geliebte! (Tristan, Isolde) 16:32
• 10 Scene 2: O sink' hernieder, Nacht (Tristan, Isolde, Brangane) 21:40
• 11 Scene 3: Rette dich, Tristan! (Kurwenal, Tristan, Melot) 01:32
• 12 Scene 3: Tatest du's wirklich? (Marke, Tristan, Isolde, Melot) 20:54
• 13 Act III: Prelude 04:01
• 14 Scene 1: Kurwenal! He! (A Shepherd, Tristan, Kurwenal) 29:00
• 15 Scene 1: Die alte Weise sagt mir’s wieder (Tristan, Kurwenal) 16:49
• 16 Scene 2: O, die Sonne! Ha, dieser Tag! (Tristan, Isolde) 03:06
• 17 Scene 2: Ha! Ich bin's, sussester Freund! (Isolde) 05:23
• 18 Scene 3: Kurwenal! Hor! (A Shepherd, Kurwenal, Brangane, Melot, Marke) 08:03
• 19 Scene 3: Mild und leise wie er lachelt, Isoldes Liebestod (Isolde) 06:07
• Total Runtime 03:44:44

Info for Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Pentatone continues its highly successful Wagner Opera series with the next installment, Tristan and Isolde. The series so far has been unanimously welcomed by the press; Meistersingers is nominated for this year’s Gramophone Award, was The Sunday Times joint Disc of the Week along with Parsifal, and the most recent release, Lohengrin is the Gramophone Awards Edition Opera Disc of the Month. Marek Janowski again conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, this time joined by soloists Nina Stemme and Stephen Gould in the title roles.

“this finds [Stemme] at her glorious peak, making much more of the text than in her previous recordings. She now stands proud as the leading Isolde and Brünnhilde of her generation and an interpreter to rank with her greatest predecessors on disc...[Gould] is probably the darkest-voiced contemporary interpreter of the exhausting part, and he is tireless and touching, if not always tonally alluring.” (Sunday Times)

“Tristan confirms Nina Stemme as the Isolde de nos jours. She and Stephen Gould are at their best in the Act 2 love duet, which obliges them to sing lyrically. Gould’s Tristan is otherwise rough and ready.” (Financial Times)

“Janowski demands heroic efforts in speed and intensity. He favours a swift performance, and in this live Tristan that means more excitement than emotion. Soprano Nina Stemme is the ranking Isolde of our time; she has a beautiful voice and paces herself perfectly. But I can't hear much passion in the delivery.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“It is something of a miracle that a recording of Tristan and Isolde as accomplished as this one can emerge from a single concert performance…It is highly dramatic, tremendously well sustained and very well recorded, so that the mighty structure and the richly blended textures emerge with unusual clarity and immediacy.” (Gramophone Magazine)

Stephen Gould, tenor (Tristan)
Nina Stemme, soprano (Isolde)
Kwangchul Youn, bass (König Marke)
Johan Reuter, baritone (Kurwenal)
Michelle Breedt, mezzo-soprano (Brangäne)
Simon Pauly, tenor (Melot)
Clemens Bieber, tenor (Ein Hirte/A shepherd)
Arttu Kataja, baritone (Ein Steuermann/A steersman)
Timothy Fallon, tenor (Ein junger Seemann/A young sailor)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Rundfunkchor Berlin
Marek Janowski, conductor

Marek Janowski
From 2002 until 2015, Marek Janowski was artistic director and chief conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). Before embarking upon his Berlin period, and also partly parallel to this, he was musical director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2005-2012), chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo (2000-2005), chief conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie (2001-2003), and musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1984- 2000).

Marek Janowski’s consistent demands for orchestral precision and his precise knowledge of the score go hand in hand with his ingenious ideas for programmes, making him one of the most renowned orchestral conductors of our time. Wherever he is invited to conduct, be it in the United States at the San Francisco Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, or in Europe with the Orchestre de Paris and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich among others, he enjoys extraordinary prestige thanks to the effciency of his work.

Marek Janowski was born in Warsaw in 1939, but grew up and was educated in Germany. He has accepted positions as general music director in Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Dortmund. Since the late 1970s, he has appeared regularly at all the major opera-houses world-wide, including the Metropolitan Opera New York, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, San Francisco, Hamburg, Vienna, and Paris.

Since the late 1990s, he has focused exclusively on the concert circuit, and has followed on in the great tradition of German conductors as an outstanding Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, and Strauss interpreter: however, he is also considered an expert in the French repertoire. His leave- taking of the opera, however, was merely an institutional matter, not a musical farewell. Now more than ever, he is ranked among the most knowledgeable experts on the works of Richard Wagner, which he has demonstrated in the concertante Wagner cycle with the RSB (2010-2013).

Marek Janowski was awarded the “Ehrenpreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (= honorary prize of the German Critics’ Award) for his extensive life’s work.

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) dates back to the first days of music-broadcasting on the German radio in October 1923, and has since sustained its position amongst the leading orchestras in Berlin and other radio orchestras throughout Germany. From 2002 to 2015, Marek Janowski was chief conductor and artistic director of the RSB. Vladimir Jurowski has been named as his successor. Previous chief conductors (including Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum, Hermann Abendroth, Rolf Kleinert, Heinz Rogner, and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos) have contributed to shaping the orchestra into a exible ensemble that experienced the vicissitudes of German history during the 20th century in a particular way. Since its foundation, the RSB has been particularly interested in contemporary music, inviting major composers to conduct or to perform as soloists in their own works. These have included Paul Hindemith, Sergei Proko ev, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky, as well as, more recently, Krzysztof Penderecki, Peter Ruzicka, and Jörg Widmann.

The RSB is especially attractive to young conductors on the international music scene. Already, Andris Nelsons, Kristjan Jarvi, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrůša, Alain Altinoglu and Alondra de la Parra have been invited to guest-conduct. In addition, the orchestra regularly gives special concerts featuring lm music under guest-conductor Frank Strobel.

The collaboration with Deutschlandradio, the main shareholder of the ROC GmbH Berlin to which the RSB belongs, has born rich fruit on CD. Starting in 2010, together with PENTATONE, great effort was put into the live recording of the Wagner cycle: the 10 SACDs have subsequently triggered a world-wide reaction.

Other activities in which the orchestra is involved include special concerts for family and children, in which the musicians often take a very personal interest, as well as guest performances in the major national and international concert halls, which have taken place over the past 50 years. In addition to regular tours in Asia, the orchestra also performs in European festivals and other Germany music centres.

Booklet for Wagner: Tristan und Isolde