Jaap van Zweden and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra

Gstaad Festival Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Wagner – Prelude to “Tristan und Isolde”

Recorded live on 12 August 2023 at the Gstaad Festival Tent

On 8 August 2023, the Gstaad Festival Orchestra under the direction of Jaap van Zweden presented Richard Wagner’s Prelude to the opera “Tristan und Isolde”. This performance once again proved what a terrific ensemble the Gstaad Festival Orchestra has developed into in recent years under van Zweden! Those who had never heard of Tristan and Isolde sensed the longing that Wagner expresses in his opera in an unforgettable way. Wagner himself described the prelude as follows: “Longing, longing, unquenchable, eternally renewed desire, thirsting and pining” and declared that it was “impossible” to exhaust the theme.