While it is indeed perplexing that most of Wagner’s greatest hits are orchestral segments, it is also at the same time understandable, since Wagner, the reformer of opera as an art form, broke with the practice of composing so-called ‘closed numbers’ – arias – thus greatly complicating the task of extracting vocal excerpts from his works. Not only are orchestral numbers more suitable for playing in a concert hall, they have catchy melodies too. What music lover would have trouble whistling the tunes of the overture to The Flying Dutchman or Tannhäuser or of The Ride of the Valkyries off the top of their head? All of these will be on the programme this evening, along with the Good Friday Spell from Parsifal, two excerpts from Tristan und Isolde – the Prelude and Isolde’s Liebestod – as well as the overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the funeral march from Götterdämmerung. This programme was first presented as part of Budapest Wagner Days in June 2023, and now, encouraged by the enormous success of that event, we are repeating it, partly in the hope that this kind of orchestral performance can serve as an ‘inaugural concert’ enticing many new listeners to get to to know Wagner. The special feature of the concert is how it will not be performed by the regular ensemble of the Wagner Days festival, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, but rather by Müpa Budapest’s resident ensemble, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert will be preceded from 6.30 pm by an introductory presentation in Hungarian by Adam Fischer entitled Prologue , which is free to attend by concert ticket holders.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest