Richard Wagner: Meistersinger. Vorspiel: Orchester

The prelude to the opera “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” was given its world premiere in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus on 11 November 1862 in a concert that Wagner organized in conjunction with Hans von Bülow and the composer Wendelin Weissheimer. Wagner personally conducted his own work. The concert was a financial flop; artistically, however, it seems to have been an extraordinary success, for Wagner reported the following day to Joachim Raff: “My Meistersinger was excellently played, and the DaCapo demanded with great sincerity. It sounded very fine.” Since then – and increasingly after its publication in 1866, two years before the world premiere of the opera – the prelude has been a beloved concert piece that impressively exposes the major themes of the “Meistersinger.”