Maiden Voyage: Matthew Rye hears the siren call of German Romanticism in a Wagner-inspired choral journey

Review of Rheinmädchen: Wagner Auf dem Grunde des Rheines (Das Rheingold, arr. anon), Siegfried’s Horn Call, Siegfried’s Funeral March (Götterdämmerung, arr. James Wilcox), Die Rheintöchter (Götterdämmerung, arr. Vincent Manac’h); songs etc variously for women’s chorus, horns and harp by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Isaac; mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, Ensemble Pygmalion, conducted Pichon (Harmonia Mundi, 1 CD).

July 2016, Volume 10, Number 2, 76–7.

Poor old Eduard Hanslick must be turning in his grave: the music of Wagner and Brahms is virtually intertwined on this enterprising CD. Yet the release makes a pertinent point, that the two composers shared common roots in the Romantic movement, ones that also gave rise to Schubert and Schumann. Taking the legend of the Rhinemaidens as its starting point, the disc explores – and creates – repertoire for women’s chorus, horns and harp that picks out shared musical and dramatic obsessions in both subject matter and technique.