Having already made orchestral arrangements of Wagner’s operas from “The Ring”, “Parsifal”, and “Tristan and Isolde” (CC72338) Henk de Vlieger added a fourth, “Die Meistersingers von Nürnberg”. The ‘Orchestral Tribute’ is made up of eleven fragments that form a suite and flow into each other without interruption. This recording is performed by de Waart and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. The disc also features de Vlieger’s arrangement of two of Wagner’s piano pieces “Deux Entreactes Tragiques” conducted by Otto Tausk.

“Die Meistersinger” holds a special position among Richard Wagner’s music dramas. It is his only ‘comic’ opera, and its subject, moreover, is not based on a myth or saga. The characters are mere common mortals and at least one of them, Hans Sachs, actually existed. Die Meistersinger also differs musically from Wagner’s preceding operas, in that it represents a return to a simpler, predominately diatonic musical idiom.

Edo de Waart won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York in 1964, and was made assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. He then became assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and in 1967 conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He also served as music director in Rotterdam from 1973 to 1979. From 1989 to 2005 he was Chief Conductor of Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2004.