Wagner Readings with Wagner's "Rheingold" in historical performance practice


It is one of the most exciting Wagner projects of these years - even before a first note has sounded: Concerto Köln and conductor Kent Nagano are approaching Richard Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen."

Since 2017, the artistic-scientific project "Wagner-Lesarten" has been developing a historically informed approach to Wagner's monumental tetralogy with the participation of scholars from various disciplines. The first part, "Das Rheingold," will be performed in concert on Nov. 18 at the Kölner Philharmonie and on Nov. 20 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

For Kent Nagano, Wagner's "Ring" is "one of the most researched compositions," but "a systematic approach to the tetralogy from a historically informed perspective has not yet taken place in this form. We have now been working on the reconstruction for about four years - I am very pleased that our 'Rheingold' will soon be performed and perhaps stimulate a discussion or two." Dr. Kai Hinrich Müller, scientific director, emphasizes the importance of scientific findings for artistic practice. Concerto Köln's artistic director Alexander Scherf adds, "by taking into account historical commentaries on Wagner's rehearsal work, his stage directions as well as historical metronome numbers, through the singers' text and pronunciation-based performance and the use of Wagner's preferred instruments, many things will sound surprisingly different."
Curtain up for a pioneering feat!

Since 2017, there has already been a series of accompanying scientific studies, conducted by the Association of Freunde von Concerto Köln and funded by the Kunststiftung NRW, which have placed this project on a broadly secured foundation. The most recent results were presented in a podcast with many of the scientists involved. The podcast, symposium contributions and scientific publications of "Wagner-Lesarten" can be found at www.wagner-lesarten.de.

Support is provided primarily by the Kunststiftung NRW, the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Strecker-Stiftung,MBL Akustikgeräte and the Verein der Freunde von Concerto Köln e.V..

Further information is available at www.wagner-lesarten.de and www.concerto-koeln.de

 

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