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Tristan und Isolde

Tom Service looks at the extraordinary impact of Wagner's epic opera Tristan und Isolde, and asks whether one famous chord really was the moment when music changed forever.

How do you listen to a four-hour opera? Tom Service considers the extraordinary impact of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, a medieval romance that became in Wagner's hands a highly-charged erotic drama of unfulfilled longing. It scandalised and over-excited early audiences in the 1860s, and it still has a profound effect on listeners. How come? Tom explores the influence of the philosopher Schopenhauer on Wagner's thinking, and how the composer's own love-life may have influenced this piece. And musicologist Kenneth Hamilton takes Tom through the radical musical structures in this piece, which somehow manage to remain unresolved over long stretches of music. Did one special chord really change music forever?

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Fri 17 Feb 2023 16:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Richard Wagner

    Tristan und Isolde

    Performer: Staatskapelle Dresden. Performer: Carlos Kleiber.
    • Tristan und Isolde.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 002894775355.

  • Richard Strauss

    Elektra - 'Was bluten muss? Dein eigenes Genick

    Performer: Staatskapelle Dresden. Performer: Christian Thielemann.
    • Elektra.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 2411552.

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Gurrelieder

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic. Performer: Claudio Abbado.
    • Gurrelieder.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4399442.

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Turangalila - Joie du sang des etoiles

    Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic. Performer: Esa‐Pekka Salonen.
    • Turangalila.
    • CBS.
    • M2K42271.

  • Bernard Herrmann

    Vertigo - Love Music

    Performer: Sinfonia of London. Performer: Muir Mathieson.
    • Bernard Herrmann's Music from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo From The Original Sound.
    • Mercury.
    • 4221062.

  • Emmanuel Chabrier

    Souvenirs de Munich

    Performer: Georges Rabol. Performer: Sylvie Dugas.
    • Chabrier - Piano Works Vol. 3.
    • Naxos.
    • 8553080.

  • Claude Debussy

    Children's Corner - VI Cake Walk

    Performer: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
    • Debussy Complete Works for Piano Vol. 3.
    • Chandos.
    • CHAN10467.

  • Richard Wagner

    Tristan und Isolde - Mild und leise wie er lachelt

    Performer: Staatskapelle Dresden. Performer: Carlos Kleiber.
    • Tristan und Isolde.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 002894775355.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 2 Oct 2016 17:00
    BBC Radio 3
  • Sun 12 Feb 2023 17:00
    BBC Radio 3
  • Fri 17 Feb 2023 16:30
    BBC Radio 3

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