Carl Reinecke Dornröschen Op 139 Bertucci Romberger Kreutz - Cpo999870 - Cpo - Classical

Cpo has been at work on behalf of Carl Reinecke for quite some time, and our releases of selected concertos and chamber compositions by him have shown that this composer may have adopted Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms as his models but did so without copying them. He belongs to the group of composers from the second half of the nineteenth century who enjoyed great esteem and fame while they were alive but have been forgotten or not fully recognized by posterity – obscured by their more genial contemporaries. As our latest Reinecke CD demonstrates, however, his œuvre contains genuine musical treasures. His Sleeping Beauty displays consummate musical craftsmanship and is highly romantic, and his setting of one of the most famous fairy tales of all, a subject to which composers such as Tchaikovsky and Humperdinck also successfully dedicated themselves, once again promises to win the hearts of our listeners. Although this work is set for a small ensemble, the term »fairy-tale poem« chosen by the composer situates it tonally and temporally beyond the song genre in the symphonic grandeur of the music theater. The vocal tasks assigned to the three soloists in the melodic leading and form of the work very much recall opera arias – as is in clearly audible evidence in Sleeping Beauty’s extended solo piece »Durch meine Seele zieht« and in her final duet with the Prince. The overall impression of the fairy-tale poem as a unified whole rests on numerous compositional means: the architecture of Sleeping Beauty effectively prescribes two grand ensemble pieces at the beginning and end, and Reinecke’s choice of keys and modes not only reinforces the contrasting characterization of the dramatis personae but also connects kindred spirits. The narrator’s role also contributes significantly to the concentrated listening impression. The color of the narrative tone contrasts with the highly romantic music, and its modern sound forms a welcome bridge to the twenty-first century. Today’s listeners very certainly will take just as much pleasure in Reinecke’s fairy-tale poem as his intended audience did during the nineteenth century.