Fanfare, 27. Mai 2007
Fanfare Magazin 27.Mai 2007
Director Pierre Audi has the orchestra back in an open pit surrounded by the stage, allowing conductor Hartmut Haenchen to be frequently in view. As with Die Walküre, Haenchen’s band is the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra—he had the far-from-negligible Residentie and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras for Rheingold and Siegfried, respectively. The orchestral playing throughout is excellent: as just one example, listen to the bass clarinet solo followed by the sequential entrance of the eight horns in the passage leading into the second scene of act II. The Funeral March, Götterdämmerung ’s most famous set piece, is thrilling.
Andrew Quint