BBC Radio 3 - Wagner Weekend 7 - 8 Dec

This weekend, BBC Radio 3 is having a "Wagner Weekend" consisting of a series of programs, unsurprisingly, with a Wagner theme. Details below.




Through The Night - 1.00am Sat 7 Dec

Violeta Urmana joins the Radio France Philharmonic in Wagner from Paris - Tristan, Lohengrin, Tannhauser, the Flying Dutchman. And in tribute to Dutilleux (1916-2013), his Metaboles. With Catriona Young.

1:01 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Overture, Der Fliegende Hollander(The Flying Dutchman)
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

1:12 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Lohengrin (Prelude to Act I; Scene 1 and 2 of Act II)
Annette Dasch (soprano), Violeta Urmana (soprano), Stephen Gould (tenor), Radio France Chorus, Robert Blank (director), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor) ,

1:52 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Overture and Venusberg Scene from Tannhauser
Stephen Gould (tenor), Annette Dasch (soprano), Radio France Chorus, Robert Blank (chorus master), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

2:14 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Violeta Urmana (soprano), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

2:32 AM
Brahms, Johannes (1833-1897)
Sonata for violin and piano no.2 (Op.100) in A major
Dene Olding (violin), Max Olding (piano)

Music Matters 12:15 pm Sat 7 Dec

Rosalyn Tureck, Hilliard Ensemble, Wagner on Screen, Mussorgsky

Includes:Wagner on Film

As BBC Radio 3 continues its celebrations of Wagner’s bicentenary this weekend, writer and broadcaster David Huckvale examines how the composer has been depicted on the screen - big and small - over the last 100 years. Starting with Giuseppe Becce in Carl Fröhlich’s 1913 silent bio-pic, (which will be shown at the Barbican Centre in London on 12th January 2014 with a live piano accompaniment composed and played by Jean Hasse) David charts Wagner’s filmic journey via the 1955 Hollywood film Magic Fire, directed by William Dieterle and starring Alan Badel & Peter Cushing, Ken Russell’s Lisztomania with Paul Nicholas as Wagner, Lyndon Brook’s portrayal in Song Without End through to Richard Burton in Tony Palmer’s epic seven and three quarter hour film from 1983 simply called “Wagner.”

Through The Night 1 am Sun 8 Dec

A Wagner special  (part 2) with Violeta Urmana. Good Friday music from Parsifal, Siegfried-Idyll, and Gotterdammerung (excerpts) with Radio France Philharmonic, conducted by Marek Janowski. Presented by Catriona Young.

1:01 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Good Friday music
Stephen Gould (tenor), Albert Dohmen (bass), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

1:16 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Siegfried-Idyll for small orchestra
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

1:34 AM
Wagner, Richard [1813-1883]
Gotterdammerung excerpts;
Violeta Urmana (soprano), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marek Janowski (conductor)

Richard Wagner: Transformations and Transfigurations

Sun 17.30 8 Dec

The much loved actors Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington present a selection of prose and poetry combined with music, evoking the spirit and art of Richard Wagner.

As part of BBC Radio 3's bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Richard Wagner, this edition of Words and Music does homage to one of the most outstanding of all Romantic composers - the man, it is claimed, who stands alongside Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte as having inspired more printed words than anyone else.

Transformations and transfigurations; music , memory and myth emerge through the poetry and prose of the "Nibelungenlied"; the works of Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarmé, and Gabriele D'Annunzio; the programme finds the "Wagnerian" in the writings of TS Eliot, DH Lawrence and Oscar Wilde; and gathers homages, portraits and reposts to the "Master" in the words of those who knew him, including Wagner's "Parsifal muse", Judith Gautier; the philosopher Freiderich Nietzsche; and Wagner's wife, Cosima. Each verbal leitmotif is sheathed in the Wagnerian glories that are Tristan, Parsifal, Lohengrin, The Mastersingers and The Ring

Wagner 200: The Invisible Theatre 18.45 Sun 8 Dec

An exploration of the ideas behind the theatre that Wagner built in Bayreuth for the ideal performance of his great music dramas, especially The Ring of the Nibelungs. Inspired by the dramas of Aeschylus and the design of ancient Greek amphitheatres, Wagner created a performing space that revolutionised opera production. With its hidden orchestra and studied lack of architectural ornamentation, the theatre was almost "invisible", focusing the attention solely on the stage image. In this, Wagner's radical vision anticipated the immersive experience of cinema. After his death it became a temple to holy German art that became enmeshed in the dark politics of the 1930s only to rise from the ashes after the 2nd World War with renewed vigour. Ever since Wagner's widow took charge after The Master's death, the Festival has been a family business, and like The Ring, the story of the Bayreuth Festival is essentially a family saga. Tom Service talks to Sven Friedrich, head of the Bayreuth museum and archive, as well as other Wagner experts: John Deathridge, Patrick Carnegy, Michael Ewans, Oliver Hilmes and Gundula Kreutzer

One Winter's Afternoon (r) 22.00 Sun 8 Dec

As part of BBC Radio 3's Wagner 200, One Winter's Afternoon tells the story of the great operatic rivalry between Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner in the year marking the bicentenary of their births. In real life, the two great composers never met.

Taking as its starting point the death of Wagner, the play travels between two time frames as it explores key moments in their lives, and in imaginary conversations between them about the struggles of creativity.

After the triumphant reception of his masterpiece Aida, Verdi has been coaxed out of retirement to write one more work, Otello, but he is struggling with it. As a voice inside Verdi's head, Wagner continues to taunt him, making him fear that Wagner will be remembered as the greater composer. The complex love lives of both composers illustrate how Wagner's ebullient and insensitive nature contrasted with Verdi's angst and more introverted temperament. The recollection of jealous passion does in the end serve to unblock Verdi in his creative despair.

The play explores - not without comedy - ageing and creativity, artistic loves and differences, the approach of death and the struggle against it bringing alive the texture of 19th-century Europe, its cultural and political influences.

Sound Design: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown