<p>Egon Wellesz, Prosperos Beschwörungen; Fünf Stücke nach Shakespeare’s „Der Sturm“ op. 53, (1934-1936)</p>

Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa,
Conductor: Jörg Birhance
(American First Performance)

I. Prosperos Beschwörung:
Prospero: „Herbei, mein Diener! Komm! Ich bin bereit. Nah Dich, mein Ariel! Komm! Mein Zauber wirkt, Die Geister folgen mir, und Zeit geht aufrecht mit ihrer Last.“ (Prospero: ‘Come away, servant, come! I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come! My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and time Goes upright with his carriage.’)

II. Ariel und der Sturm (07:55)
Prospero: „Hast Du, Geist, genau den Sturm vollführt, wie ich Dir auftrug?“ Ariel: „In jedem Punkt. Ich flog aufs Schiff des Königs und jetzt am Schnabel, jetzt im Bauch, auf dem Verdeck, in jeglicher Kajüte flammt‘ ich Entsetzen.“ (Prospero: ‘Hast thou, spirit, Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee?’ Ariel: ‘To every article. I boarded the King’s ship. Now on the beak, Now in the waste, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement.’)

III. Ariels Gesang (13:50)
Ferdinand: „Wo ist die Musik? Hier unten? In der Luft?“ (Ferdinand: ‘Where should his music be? I’th’ air or th’earth?’)

IV. Caliban (19:45)
Prospero: „Ein Teufel, ein Urteufel, dessen Art Erziehung niemals annimmt.“ (Prospero: ‘A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick.’)

V. Ferdinand und Miranda (25:50)
Miranda: „Liebt Ihr mich?“ Ferdinand: „O Erd, o Himmel! Zeugt für dieses Wort und krönet es mit glücklichem Erfolg.“ (Miranda: ‘Do you love me?’ Ferdinand: ‘O heaven, O earth, be witness to this sound, And crown what I profess with kind event.’)

Epilog (35:02)
Prospero: „All meine Zauber ist vollbracht, was mir blieb, ist meine Macht.“ (Prospero: ‘Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own.’)

About the piece:
Egon Wellesz (1885-1974) is an exemplary and outstanding representative of a musical epoch that had no opportunity to fully expand. Prospero’s Beschwörungen was composed between 1934 and 1936. It had its premiere on 19 February 1938 at the Vienna Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Bruno Walter. The work was praised by critics as a masterpiece of the first half of the 20th century. Bruno Walter promptly asked Dr. Rudolf Mengelberg, the secretary of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, to program this work at Walter’s next concert, scheduled for March 13, 1938, where it would replace „Death and Transfiguration“ by Richard Strauss. Bruno Walter and Egon Wellesz travelled to Amsterdam. On March 12, 1938, the day before the Amsterdam premiere, Hitler’s troops marched into Austria, making Egon Wellesz’s return to Vienna impossible. He found his exile in Oxford, where he taught for the rest of his life. After the end of World War II, he turned to symphonic form, of which he became an outstanding representative. Due to these circumstances, Egon Wellesz is still known to only a relatively small circle of musicians and audiences. (J.B.)

Live-Recording from 01 February 2019 Centro Cultural Tlaqná, Xalapa – With kind permission of Doblinger Musikverlag Wien – Thanks to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and its Music Director Lanfranco Marceletti. – With friendly support of the Egon-Wellesz-Fonds at Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien.