Pelleas und Melisande Op 5 (with Wagner - Siegfried Idyll)

Christian Thielemann can be seen as one of the last orchestral conductors to uphold the tradition of such "grand old men" as Furtwängler, Celibidache and Karajan. The late Romantic repertoire is his principal field of activity. Wagner, Strauss and Pfitzner are his household gods. Few conductors are capable of his deeply felt readings, which reveal a profound understanding of the subtexts and which affect his listeners so deeply.

Proof of his standing is that not only has he been invited to conduct Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth but his expertise as a Straussian is also in demand at Salzburg and he has just made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic which was also recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. On the programme were Eine Alpensinfonie and the Rosenkavalier-Suite by Richard Strauss (release: Spring 2001).

The current recording of Christian Thielemann and the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin combines two outstanding works of the late-Romantic repertoire: Schoenberg´s symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande and the highly-popular Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner.

Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande marks the high point of the composer's tonal period, where he took tonality to its very limits. After this work he turned to avant-garde compositional techniques. Wagner's Siegfried Idyll on the other hand, had little connection to his other works despite its motivic links with the Ring. It was in fact written specifically for live performance by a modest chamber ensemble outside the door of his wife's bedroom following the successful birth of their new child. Wagner described the piece as "the only work of mine which comes straight from my life". Though such masterworks as Das Rheingold, Siegfried, Tristan und Isolde and Meistersinger were still to follow, Wagner remained attached to the piece for the rest of his life.