Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Act I:
00:11 Le Cheveu d'Or (The golden hair)
25:37 Le Philtre (The love potion)
Act II:
41:20 Dans la Grand' Salle de Tintagel (In the great hall of Tintagel)
Act III:
49:35 Le Grand Pin (The Great Pine Tree)
Unfortunately, only the first of Theater Ulm's 2 CDs of the opera is available on YouTube; if that ever changes, I will make part 2 as well. Their performance in 2022-23 was also the first ever staging, nearly a century after the opera was written.
Note that there may be some slight audio discontinuity, as each scene is a separate audio file and I don't have the engineering chops to put them together seamlessly. Regarding lengths of silences between certain scenes, I have mostly stuck to what's already in the recordings, but in some places I have added a little extra for a nicer listening experience.
Text by Albert Pauphilet
An De Ridder (Iseut)
Markus Francke (Tristan)
Dae-Hee Shin (Le roi Marc)
I-Chiao Shih (Brangien)
Joshua Spink (Le nain Frocin)
Felix Bender, conductor
Opern- und Extrachor des Theaters Ulm
Das Philharmonische Orchester der Stadt Ulm
More about the performers can be found at theater-ulm.de/spielplan/stuecke/la-legende-de-tristan
Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) was a French composer and organist, considered one of the greatest organists of his time. For more on Tournemire, see the description of my score video of his sixth symphony (youtube.com/watch?v=K_2T7QW5EjQ) and my blog (unknowncomposers.org/2018/11/04/the-journey-begins/).
Like Wagner's more famous opera on the same subject, "La Légende de Tristan" sets the story, usually attributed to Celtic folklore, of Tristan and Iseult, the Cornish knight and Irish princess who have a forbidden love affair in Arthurian times. Opera is not quite my cup of tea; thus, as you can imagine, I'm more interested in "La Légende de Tristan" from an orchestrational point of view than an operatic one.
That said, I think writing for the stage suits Tournemire's later style perfectly. In this work, written two years after his eighth and last symphony, one can clearly hear the influence of his later symphonic works; echoes of the characteristic active rhythms of his choral writing from his sixth symphony, the varied spacious textures from parts of the seventh, and the harmonic wanderings and murky paths of low instruments in the eighth.
Act I:
00:11 Le Cheveu d'Or (The golden hair)
25:37 Le Philtre (The love potion)
Act II:
41:20 Dans la Grand' Salle de Tintagel (In the great hall of Tintagel)
Act III:
49:35 Le Grand Pin (The Great Pine Tree)
Unfortunately, only the first of Theater Ulm's 2 CDs of the opera is available on YouTube; if that ever changes, I will make part 2 as well. Their performance in 2022-23 was also the first ever staging, nearly a century after the opera was written.
Note that there may be some slight audio discontinuity, as each scene is a separate audio file and I don't have the engineering chops to put them together seamlessly. Regarding lengths of silences between certain scenes, I have mostly stuck to what's already in the recordings, but in some places I have added a little extra for a nicer listening experience.
Text by Albert Pauphilet
An De Ridder (Iseut)
Markus Francke (Tristan)
Dae-Hee Shin (Le roi Marc)
I-Chiao Shih (Brangien)
Joshua Spink (Le nain Frocin)
Felix Bender, conductor
Opern- und Extrachor des Theaters Ulm
Das Philharmonische Orchester der Stadt Ulm
More about the performers can be found at theater-ulm.de/spielplan/stuecke/la-legende-de-tristan
Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) was a French composer and organist, considered one of the greatest organists of his time. For more on Tournemire, see the description of my score video of his sixth symphony (youtube.com/watch?v=K_2T7QW5EjQ) and my blog (unknowncomposers.org/2018/11/04/the-journey-begins/).
Like Wagner's more famous opera on the same subject, "La Légende de Tristan" sets the story, usually attributed to Celtic folklore, of Tristan and Iseult, the Cornish knight and Irish princess who have a forbidden love affair in Arthurian times. Opera is not quite my cup of tea; thus, as you can imagine, I'm more interested in "La Légende de Tristan" from an orchestrational point of view than an operatic one.
That said, I think writing for the stage suits Tournemire's later style perfectly. In this work, written two years after his eighth and last symphony, one can clearly hear the influence of his later symphonic works; echoes of the characteristic active rhythms of his choral writing from his sixth symphony, the varied spacious textures from parts of the seventh, and the harmonic wanderings and murky paths of low instruments in the eighth.
![EDUARD TUBIN - Symphony No. 11 [unfinished] (Score Video)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l-vYcU8buKo/mqdefault.jpg "EDUARD TUBIN - Symphony No. 11 [unfinished] (Score Video)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arvo Volmer
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982) was an Estonian composer and conductor, his countrys most prolific and arguably greatest symphonist. Having completed his studies under another very prominent Estonian composer, Heino Eller (whose music I also plan to upload), in independent Estonia, Tubin fled following the Soviet reoccupation of his country in 1944. He settled permanently in Sweden for the rest of his life, writing many of his most important works, being elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and becoming a Swedish citizen in 1961. In addition to an impressive eleven symphonies, Tubin wrote two operas, the first Estonian ballet (Kratt), concerti for double bass and balalaika, choral music, art songs, and chamber and solo works (particularly violin and piano music.)
For those unacquainted with Tubin, his orchestral music - particularly the symphonies of his middle and later period - shares some common elements with Shostakovich, often marrying relatively rigid formal structures like fugues with rather astringent harmonic ideas and an unexpected emotional intensity. He also brought Estonian folk music into several of his works. Although Tubins work was initially somewhat unrecognized outside Estonia (even in Sweden), it has gained prominence in the last few decades due to the efforts of Estonian conductors including Neeme and Paavo Järvi.
The eleventh symphony, which Tubin was working on when he passed away in 1982, combines the aforementioned characteristics with a rather bright orchestration typical of his later music. The last minute or so of the first movement was completed by the Estonian-Canadian composer Kaljo Raid, resulting in the recording here; the score I have available is a copy of Tubins manuscript and thus does not contain this completion.
I now have scores of all of Tubins symphonies except the first; some of them are scans of old and battered copies, so they will take a little longer to upload - especially as most of his symphonic works are quite substantial in both musical material and length. I also plan to post his balalaika concerto soon, so if you enjoyed this work, stay tuned for more!")
