On his previous album of classical piano interpretations of the music of Richard Wagner, Alexander Jacob converted a contemplative opera into an ambient soundtrack in which melodies emerged evanescent and drifted toward the surface. With Richard Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Jacob takes the more robust thematic material of that opera and makes from it an album of stormy but passionate classical piano pieces as we might find from Chopin or Brahms.
The piano attacks these pieces with a stormy bluster followed by periods of long contemplative expansion on the melodies, compressing lengthy operas into a classical piece that can easily fit into the listening of a normal classical listener, with more of a Romantic style on piano than the hybrid Romantic-Modernist style of the Wagner operas. In this, Jacob and the transcribers Richard Kleinmichel and Karl Klindworth translate Wagner into an entirely different style while distilling his lengthy compositions to the internal dialogue of complex but approachable pieces.
Where the last album occurred as waves of ambient melody as fit Parsifal, for the more sturm und drang material of the Ring cycle Richard Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen takes an appropriately forthright approach in reducing many layers of orchestration and voices to a piano monologue. As an introduction to Wagner, this album may be more approachable than the first, although that may show more of Wagner’s technique in composition as it distinguishes itself from others. For those who want a classical piano experience that delivers intensity without veering into bombast, Richard Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen will be a delight.
Tags: alexander jacob, Classical, karl klindworth, piano, richard kleinmichel, richard wagner
Gabe – Isvind just released their new album, could you review it?
thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPGUCuKfgQ
Oh and Skyforger too. There is a bunch of familiar bands that have released albums this year:
Skyforger
Isvind
Varathron
Morbus 666
Symphony X
Malevolent Creation
Cruciamentum
Iron Maiden
Stormhammer
Motorhead
Slayer
Should be given the Sadistic Review treatment.
Quite a few of those have already been reviewed here.
Yes but not Sadistically !
This album and the Parsifal one would be interesting introductions to Wagner. For someone like me who has been listening to the operas for years, these releases have value as an interesting interpretation of Wagner’s work. For example, I’m used to thinking of the Magic Fire Music as being pretty delicate and ethereal, almost ambient, since I usually listen to Karajan’s 1970(?) Götterdämmerung, but this piano version brought out a lot of the latent heaviness that I hadn’t noticed before.
Also, unrelated to the piano Parsifal, but does anyone else get a serious Klaus Schulze vibe from the vorspiel on this 1981 Parsifal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1BFR5UfXe0
Thanks for sharing – the purchase link is: http://numenbooks.com/spirit/other-products/music-cds/richard-wagner-der-ring-des-nibelungen-alexander-jacob-piano/
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Would rather listen to Charles Rosen playing late Beethoven sonatas.
Wagner’s music wasn’t written for piano and it really sucks to hear it played that way.