The DVD of the Month for March, 2017 is the amazing cantata titled “Gurrelieder” by Arnold Schoenberg.
The performing artists are:r
Burkhard Fritz (Waldemar), Emily Magee (Tove), Anna Larsson (Waldtaube), Markus Marquard (Bauer), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Klaus-Narr), and Sunnyi Melles (Narrator), with the
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus of the Dutch National Opera, Marc Albrecht, conductor
Begun in the year 1900, amidst the art of Klimt and music of Mahler, Schönberg’s grand cantata is written in a lush, late-romantic style indebted to Wagner and Mahler and pre-dating his pioneering atonal works.
This setting of the mediaeval Danish legend of Gurre Castle – a love triangle between King Waldemar, his mistress Tove and a jealous Queen – gains an innovative new dimension in this first-ever staging of the work, directed by Pierre Audi.
Here is a performance of this work by the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra:
