Mozart | Wagner at The Bridgewater Hall
Will Fulford-Jones
Mozart – Symphony No. 36 (‘Linz’) (29’)
Wagner – Die Walküre – Act 1 (67’)
An evening of Wagner usually requires a sizeable commitment on the part of the audience. Even the composer’s most devoted admirers, and he has many, wouldn’t attempt to claim brevity as one of his guiding virtues: many of his operas top four hours even before you’ve factored in the interval(s), and their intensity can be overwhelming. This concert, then, is a good chance to make the composer’s acquaintance via one of his greatest operatic hits: the gripping first act of Die Walküre, episode two in the four-part Ring Cycle, which usually clocks in at a very manageable hour or so.
Conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, who has quickly established himself among the world’s top-tier conductors of both orchestral and operatic music, this concert performance features an all-star cast, including acclaimed German soprano Christiane Libor and charismatic bass Brindley Sherratt. Before it, Mozart’s ‘Linz’ Symphony, commissioned by an Austrian count and written in a quite ridiculous four days flat.
Christiane Libor – soprano
Guy Mannheim – tenor
Brindley Sherratt – bass
Omer Meir Wellber – conductor
