Tristan Und Isolde - Concert Extracts and Arrangements

Concert Extracts and Arrangements

The Prelude and Liebestod is a concert version of the overture and Isolde's Act 3 aria, "Mild und leise". The arrangement was by Wagner himself, and it was first performed in 1862, several years before the premiere of the complete opera in 1865. The Liebestod can be performed either in a purely orchestral version, or with a soprano singing Isolde's vision of Tristan resurrected.

Wagner called the Prelude the "Liebestod" (Love-death) while Isolde's final aria "Mild und leise" he called the "Verklärung" (Transfiguration). In 1867 his father-in-law Franz Liszt made a piano transcription of "Mild und leise", which he called Liebestod (S.447); he prefaced his score with a four-bar motto from the Love Duet from Act II, which in the opera is sung to the words "sehnend verlangter Liebestod". Liszt's transcription became well-known throughout Europe well before Wagner's opera reached most places, and it is Liszt's title for the final scene that persists. The transcription was revised in 1875.

Another composer to rework material from Tristan was Emmanuel Chabrier in his humorous Souvenirs de Munich - quadrilles on themes from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. These were augmented and orchestrated by Markus Lehmann in 1988. Leopold Stokowski made a series of purely orchestral "Symphonic Syntheses" of Wagner's operas during his time as conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, bringing to concert audiences of the 1920s and '30s music they might not otherwise have heard. He made a 'long version' of music from Tristan and Isolde which consisted mainly of the Act 1 Prelude, the Liebesnacht from Act 2 and the Liebestod from Act 3. A shorter version of music from the 2nd and 3rd Acts was called "Love Music from Tristan and Isolde". He made recordings of both versions on 78s and again on LP.

Other works based on the opera include:

1. Clément Doucet's piano rags Isoldina and Wagneria.
2. Hans Werner Henze's Tristan: Préludes für Klavier, Tonbänder un Orchester (1973);
3. a 'symphonic compilation' Tristan und Isolde: an orchestral passion (1994) by Henk de Vlieger;
4. a six-minute paraphrase by Enjott Schnieder, Der Minuten-Tristan (1996), originally written for 12 pianists at six pianos;
5. the Nachtstück (1980–83) for viola and chamber orchestra by Volker David Kirchner