Engelbert Humperdinck - Music for the Stage (Dario Salvi)

Information

Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck

• Die Heirat wider Willen: Act II Prelude
• Der Kaufmann von Venedig
• Das Wunder Suite (arr. Adolf Lotter)
• Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar (1878 Original Version)
• Lysistrata

Andrea Chudak, soprano

Ruxandra Voda van der Plas, contralto

Harrie van der Plas, tenor

Malmö Opera Chorus & Orchestra

Dario Salvi, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574177

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Review

Any recording of any music by Engelbert Humperdinck is to be savoured by his devotees, though we know better than to expect the extraordinary magic of Königskinder and Hänsel und Gretel at every turn. There are moments on this album that cross into that special domain, but only moments. The chief interest here is context for those works, in which the workings of Humperdinck’s theatrical mind are laid bare.

Some of the musical scenery is noticeably hand-shunted but Humperdinck is nothing if not sturdy. The Prelude to Act 2 of Die Heirat wilder Willen (after Alexandre Dumas’s Les demoiselles de Saint-Cyr) is all anticipation. Incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is professionally utilitarian and unobtrusive; the depiction of the love between Lorenzo and Jessica rises to offer an idiosyncratic Humperdinckian embrace.

Likewise the last of five movements from music for a 1912 screening of the film Das Wunder at Covent Garden, which tells of a wayward nun running off with a knight. As in Hänsel, ‘Christmas Music’ lifts off when Humperdinck uses known tunes – in this case Lutheran chorales – and calls on his signature way of crowning a scene like a cosy domestic Parsifal. The other four movements were designed to be more unobtrusive but on record, as in Die Heirat, feel disjointed. Music for a 1908 production of Sophocles’ Lysistrata is slight and basic but has hints of fairy tale.

The only music not divorced from its purpose here is the slight pilgrimage-themed cantata Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar after texts by Heine. Suddenly Humperdinck is all the more vivid, but depth of feeling and sophistication of construction are more Stainer’s The Crucifixion than Wagner’s Tannhäuser, even if Humperdinck is able to cover a lot of narrative in a short space of time.

Performances from the Malmö Opera orchestra and chorus under Dario Salvi are as evocative as they need to be; tenor Harrie van der Plas is best of the soloists, the two female singers sometimes shaky and not blending well in ‘Casket Song’ from the Shakespeare. The booklet note writer is all at sea, preferring to tell us who else has scored The Merchant of Venice, from Arthur Sullivan to Jocelyn Pook, than to set the music recorded in dramatic context.

-- Andrew Mellor, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Dec/Humperdinck-stage-8574177.htm

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.574177&languageid=EN

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Stage-Malmo-Opera-Chorus/dp/B08JF2BKYR

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Engelbert Humperdinck (1 September 1854 – 27 September 1921) was a German composer, best known for his opera Hänsel und Gretel. He studied with Ferdinand Hiller and Isidor Seiss at the Cologne Conservatory, then with Franz Lachner and later with Josef Rheinberger in Munich. Humperdinck assisted Wagner in the production of Parsifal and also served as music tutor to Wagner's son, Siegfried. Although recognized as a disciple of Wagner, Humperdinck was the first composer to use Sprechgesang - a vocal technique halfway between singing and speaking - in his melodrama Die Königskinder (1897).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engelbert_Humperdinck_(composer)

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Dario Salvi (born 1975) is a British-Italian conductor, researcher and musicologist. Born in Northern Italy and currently residing in Scotland, Salvi has received musical training in both Italy and the UK. He is a professional bass guitarist and has toured the world playing for bands and orchestras. He is widely regarded as a fast-rising name in opera and operetta, and is known for his expressive gestures and precision of style. Salvi has guest conducted and recorded opera and operetta across the USA, the Middle East and Europe. He is a recording artist with Naxos, and has published three books on Viennese operetta.

https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Dario_Salvi/323089

https://www.dariosalvi.com/

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