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Special offer. Ethel Smyth: Der Wald
Natalya Romaniw (Röschen), Claire Barnett-Jones (Iolanthe), Robert Murray (Heinrich), Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf), Matthew Brook (Peter), BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, John Andrews
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2023, World Premiere Recording (Rediscovery)
Der Wald may not be such an outstanding piece [as The Wreckers], but it is well worth getting to know. While Harry Brewster’s somewhat naïve libretto holds it back, Smyth’s score shows an impressive...
Special offer. Ethel Smyth: Der Wald
Natalya Romaniw (Röschen), Claire Barnett-Jones (Iolanthe), Robert Murray (Heinrich), Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf), Matthew Brook (Peter), BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, John Andrews
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Awards:
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2023, World Premiere Recording (Rediscovery)
Der Wald may not be such an outstanding piece [as The Wreckers], but it is well worth getting to know. While Harry Brewster’s somewhat naïve libretto holds it back, Smyth’s score shows an impressive...
About
For over 100 years the only opera by a woman to have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Der Wald is a taut, brooding drama where the simplicity of village life comes under threat from the uncontrollable desires unleashed by the darkness of the forest. Richly orchestrated, harmonically daring, and demanding a huge expressive range from the cast, the narrative drives relentlessly forward from wedding to tragedy in a single act, observed pitilessly by the eternal spirits of the forest. John Andrews conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in the first ever recording of this work, using Smyth's English version of the libretto.
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
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John Andrews on Ethel Smyth's Der Wald
11th Sep 2023
The conductor discusses the first-ever recording of Smyth's second opera - a deliciously dark fairy-tale in one act, which was premiered in Berlin in 1902 and subsequently transferred to the Metropolitan Opera.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2023
December 2023
Der Wald may not be such an outstanding piece [as The Wreckers], but it is well worth getting to know. While Harry Brewster’s somewhat naïve libretto holds it back, Smyth’s score shows an impressive range of skills...Andrews rescues another lost English opera from oblivion and leads an excellent performance: it would be difficult to imagine finer accounts of the central roles than those given here…
November 2023
Andrews directs a strong performance from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, who relish Smyth’s evocative (and occasionally Wagnerian) scoring. With the BBC Singers, they support a fine cast, dominated by Claire Barnett-Jones.
14th September 2023
This, Der Wald’s first recording, argues its case persuasively. The conductor, John Andrews, manages to make the hour-long score sound at once concise and expansive, and we sense the hint of mystery that Smyth wanted to engender with her depiction of the primeval forest setting...It is sung, in English (the premiere was in German), by a cast that does Smyth’s music full justice.
