Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra & Vienna State Opera Chorus conducted by Sir Georg Solti. For a list of singers: tinyurl.com/27k8k63v
I - Akt I
Ouvertüre (0:00) - Venusberg Bacchanale (9:52) - "Naht euch dem Strande" (16:30) - "Geliebter, sag', wo weilt dein Sinn?" (21:35) - "Dir töne Lob! Die Wunder sei'n gepriesen" (27:04) - "Geliebter, komm! Sieh dort die Grotte!" (32:28) - "Stets soll nur dir, nur dir mein Lied ertönen" (37:12) - "Zieh hin, Wahnbetörter, zieh hin! Geh!" (38:54) - "Frau Holda kam aus dem Berg hervor" (48:25) - "Zu dir wall ich, mein Jesus Christ" (50:36) - "Wer ist der dort in brünstigem Gebete?" (57:22) - "Als du in kühnem Sange uns bestrittest" (1:02:21)
II - Akt II
"Dich, teure Halle, grüß ich wieder" (1:08:51) - "O Fürstin!" (1:13:40) - "Schon nahen sich die Edlen meiner Lande" (1:28:34) - "Gar viel und schön ward hier in dieser Halle" (1:35:27) - "Blick ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise" (1:42:16) - "O Wolfram, der du also sangest" (1:47:26) - "Heraus zum Kampfe mit uns allen" (1:49:18) - "Ha, tör'ger Prahler Biterolf!" (1:50:29) - "Dir, Göttin der Liebe, soll mein Lied ertönen!" (1:52:23) - "Ha, der Verruchte! Fliehet ihn!" (1:53:12) - "Zurück von ihm! Nicht ihr seid seine Richter!" (1:55:24) - "Zum Heil der Sündigen zu führen" (2:02:14) - "Ein furchtbares Verbrechen ward begangen" (2:07:10) - "Mit ihnen sollst du wallen" (2:10:37)
III - Akt III
Prelude (2:15:54) - "Wohl wußt' ich hier sie im Gebet zu finden" (2:23:26) - "Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat" (2:26:35) - "Allmächtige Jungfrau, hör mein Flehen!" (2:31:31) - "Wie Todesahnung, Dämm'rung deckt die Lande" (2:40:10) - "O du mein holder Abendstern" (2:42:12) - "Ich höre Harfenschlag - wie klang er traurig" (2:45:47) - "Inbrunst im Herzen, wie ein Büßer noch" (2:49:52) - "Dahin zog's mich, wo ich der Wonn und Lust" (2:58:35) - "Willkommen, ungetreuer Mann!" (3:00:49)
Wagner's "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg" (Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg) was composed between July 1842 and April 1845. It was premiered at the Dresden Opera House on October 19 of 1845, conducted by the composer and modestly received by the audience. The opera soon found success throughout Germany. In order to suit Parisian tastes, Wagner made a number of revisions, including the addition of a ballet to connect the overture to the first scene. Its performance in Paris on March 13 of 1861 was initially well-received, but further performances suffered from severe disruptions that led to the opera's withdrawal.
It is largely derived from the Grand French Romantic tradition. The libretto, written by Wagner himself, combines the German legends of Tannhäuser, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work. Like "Rienzi", "Tannhäuser" never took a definitive form due to Wagner's near continuously tinkering with the score. There exist three main versions; the 1845 Dresden original (with a 1860 revision), the 1861 Paris one, and the 1875 Vienna revision. The most substantial differences are between the Dresden and Paris versions, but in productions and recordings, elements from different versions are frequently combined.
The orchestra introduces the drama's most important themes in the overture. Act One begins at the Venusberg, chromatic swirls and robust orchestration forming the musical backdrop for frolicking fauna at the grotto of the love goddess. The master singer Tannhäuser sings three appeals for Venus to release him to the world beyond her mountain, each appeal one semitone higher than the one preceding, revealing Tannhäuser's heightening intensity. In the valley before the Wartburg resound a shepherd's song and a chorus of older pilgrims making their way to Rome. Wagner constructs the chorus of the pious pilgrims in a four-part chorale setting reminiscent of the Lutheran chorales of J.S. Bach.
In the Act Two song contest, Wolfram, Tannhäuser, and Biterolf sing artful songs on the nature of love. Having returned unsuccessfully from his pilgrimage to Rome, Tannhäuser sings to Wolfram of his experiences there, his musical manner alternating between wilful expanses in his previous songful vein and recitative utterances. The chromatic Venusberg music returns when Tannhäuser realizes that he has no choice but to live out his destiny of damnation in the service of Venus herself. On learning that Elisabeth has died so that his own sins may be forgiven, Tannhäuser hears the devoutly diatonic music of Elisabeth's funeral procession, which, having purified the Venusberg music of its excessive chromaticism, invites the final triumphal statement of the theme from the pilgrims' chorus as the opera draws to a close.
Picture: "Tannhäuser and Venus" (1873) by Otto Knille.
Sources: tinyurl.com/243vcwhs and tinyurl.com/2955tc7s
Score: tinyurl.com/22ndcbcm
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra & Vienna State Opera Chorus conducted by Sir Georg Solti. For a list of singers: tinyurl.com/27k8k63v
I - Akt I
Ouvertüre (0:00) - Venusberg Bacchanale (9:52) - "Naht euch dem Strande" (16:30) - "Geliebter, sag', wo weilt dein Sinn?" (21:35) - "Dir töne Lob! Die Wunder sei'n gepriesen" (27:04) - "Geliebter, komm! Sieh dort die Grotte!" (32:28) - "Stets soll nur dir, nur dir mein Lied ertönen" (37:12) - "Zieh hin, Wahnbetörter, zieh hin! Geh!" (38:54) - "Frau Holda kam aus dem Berg hervor" (48:25) - "Zu dir wall ich, mein Jesus Christ" (50:36) - "Wer ist der dort in brünstigem Gebete?" (57:22) - "Als du in kühnem Sange uns bestrittest" (1:02:21)
II - Akt II
"Dich, teure Halle, grüß ich wieder" (1:08:51) - "O Fürstin!" (1:13:40) - "Schon nahen sich die Edlen meiner Lande" (1:28:34) - "Gar viel und schön ward hier in dieser Halle" (1:35:27) - "Blick ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise" (1:42:16) - "O Wolfram, der du also sangest" (1:47:26) - "Heraus zum Kampfe mit uns allen" (1:49:18) - "Ha, tör'ger Prahler Biterolf!" (1:50:29) - "Dir, Göttin der Liebe, soll mein Lied ertönen!" (1:52:23) - "Ha, der Verruchte! Fliehet ihn!" (1:53:12) - "Zurück von ihm! Nicht ihr seid seine Richter!" (1:55:24) - "Zum Heil der Sündigen zu führen" (2:02:14) - "Ein furchtbares Verbrechen ward begangen" (2:07:10) - "Mit ihnen sollst du wallen" (2:10:37)
III - Akt III
Prelude (2:15:54) - "Wohl wußt' ich hier sie im Gebet zu finden" (2:23:26) - "Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat" (2:26:35) - "Allmächtige Jungfrau, hör mein Flehen!" (2:31:31) - "Wie Todesahnung, Dämm'rung deckt die Lande" (2:40:10) - "O du mein holder Abendstern" (2:42:12) - "Ich höre Harfenschlag - wie klang er traurig" (2:45:47) - "Inbrunst im Herzen, wie ein Büßer noch" (2:49:52) - "Dahin zog's mich, wo ich der Wonn und Lust" (2:58:35) - "Willkommen, ungetreuer Mann!" (3:00:49)
Wagner's "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg" (Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg) was composed between July 1842 and April 1845. It was premiered at the Dresden Opera House on October 19 of 1845, conducted by the composer and modestly received by the audience. The opera soon found success throughout Germany. In order to suit Parisian tastes, Wagner made a number of revisions, including the addition of a ballet to connect the overture to the first scene. Its performance in Paris on March 13 of 1861 was initially well-received, but further performances suffered from severe disruptions that led to the opera's withdrawal.
It is largely derived from the Grand French Romantic tradition. The libretto, written by Wagner himself, combines the German legends of Tannhäuser, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work. Like "Rienzi", "Tannhäuser" never took a definitive form due to Wagner's near continuously tinkering with the score. There exist three main versions; the 1845 Dresden original (with a 1860 revision), the 1861 Paris one, and the 1875 Vienna revision. The most substantial differences are between the Dresden and Paris versions, but in productions and recordings, elements from different versions are frequently combined.
The orchestra introduces the drama's most important themes in the overture. Act One begins at the Venusberg, chromatic swirls and robust orchestration forming the musical backdrop for frolicking fauna at the grotto of the love goddess. The master singer Tannhäuser sings three appeals for Venus to release him to the world beyond her mountain, each appeal one semitone higher than the one preceding, revealing Tannhäuser's heightening intensity. In the valley before the Wartburg resound a shepherd's song and a chorus of older pilgrims making their way to Rome. Wagner constructs the chorus of the pious pilgrims in a four-part chorale setting reminiscent of the Lutheran chorales of J.S. Bach.
In the Act Two song contest, Wolfram, Tannhäuser, and Biterolf sing artful songs on the nature of love. Having returned unsuccessfully from his pilgrimage to Rome, Tannhäuser sings to Wolfram of his experiences there, his musical manner alternating between wilful expanses in his previous songful vein and recitative utterances. The chromatic Venusberg music returns when Tannhäuser realizes that he has no choice but to live out his destiny of damnation in the service of Venus herself. On learning that Elisabeth has died so that his own sins may be forgiven, Tannhäuser hears the devoutly diatonic music of Elisabeth's funeral procession, which, having purified the Venusberg music of its excessive chromaticism, invites the final triumphal statement of the theme from the pilgrims' chorus as the opera draws to a close.
Picture: "Tannhäuser and Venus" (1873) by Otto Knille.
Sources: tinyurl.com/243vcwhs and tinyurl.com/2955tc7s
Score: tinyurl.com/22ndcbcm
