Hildegard Behrens: with Raymond Leppard & the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

A superb all-Wagner concert in Indianapolis...

HILDEGARD BEHRENS
dramatic soprano

Saddened by her passing,
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Dich teure Halle
-Elisabeth's aria
from Tannhäuser

Immolation scene
-from Götterdämmerung

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...marked her debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and her first collaboration with the noted conductor Raymond Leppard. The chemistry was perfect and it showed in the music-making and the audience response.

It is not very often that Hildegard Behrens comes to this part of the US, but when she does, the audience and yes, the orchestra, are blown away as they clearly were all three evenings she sang an all-Wagner concert at Indianapolis' historic Hilbert Circle Theatre in September 1999.

Conductor Raymond Leppard introduced Wagner's big sound gently to the audience with the stirring, melodic overture to Rienzi, the 5-act opera, now rarely staged, about the last of the Roman tribunes, written when Wagner was 27 years old. This was soon followed by Siegfried Idyll - soft, dreamy, poetic, a fitting prologue to Ms. Behrens' quietly elegant entry onto the stage. In her first number, with delicate accompaniment by the orchestra, she sang ever so sweetly of dreams - Traume, from the Wesendonck-Lieder. It was a visibly touching moment.

"Soprano's superb Wagner recalls century-old great" proclaimed The Indianapolis Star as writer Charles Staff likened Ms. Behrens' performance to that day in May 1903 when the great German soprano Johanna Gadski "hurled Wagner into a Victor acoustical horn" and amazed the music world with her recordings of Wagner's works. Calling Hildegard Behrens "perhaps the century's last great Wagnerian," he continued to give her unequivocal praise:

"Behrens no more than opened her mouth than one became aware of what can only be called 'a reservoir of sound,' soft, superbly projected, always vocally saying 'There's more.'"

And more, there was! Presaging a more robust program for the rest of the evening, she burst into joyous rapture with Dich, teure Halle (from Act II of Tannhäuser) - and as The Star noted: "Without effort... produced tones that filled the theater and may well have gone through the wall to spin around Monument Circle* a couple of times."

And still more, there was! Following intermission, Leppard led the orchestra in full strength and with great command through the awesome crescendo of the Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) - via Siegfried's Rhine Journey, the Death March music, and the Immolation Scene in which Ms. Behrens, having rejoined the orchestra, "Rhine-flooded the house with her voice. Her singing was not just startlingly large, though seemingly so easily produced. Her colors ranged from high B-flats to the ghostlike murmur, Ruhe, ruhe du Gott. (Rest, rest, oh God.)"

Without a doubt, these were three musically extraordinary evenings. For three evenings early in the 1999-2000 season, the city's concert-goers had their fill of Wagner's music and they loved it! The all-Wagner concert was served just right - with perfect balance in both the programme and the delivery. Fittingly, at each performance, they awarded the soloist and the orchestra with thunderous standing ovations.

And just as Hildegard Behrens on these evenings once again proved herself a great Wagnerian, Raymond Leppard in brilliantly unleashing the Wagnerian forces of his orchestra showed that the city famous for its Indy 500 should be as justly famous for its Symphony. Simply world-class!

(And may we hasten to add, with certainty, that Ms. Behrens herself thought so.)
- GC/FanFaire 2000

* Monument Circle: the center of downtown Indianapolis with a landmark monument to war heroes.
Concert dates: September 23, 24, & 25 1999.

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