WEINBERGER: SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER

Sony Classical is delighted to offer lovers of singing another ten complete recordings from the RCA Red Seal, CBS/Sony Classical and Eurodisc catalogues. The latest instalment of this wide-ranging series not only features some of the greatest voices of the last century but also spotlights once popular works that have been unduly neglected in recent times. There was a time when the best-loved opera by a Czech composer – aside from Smetana’s Bartered Bride, which it much resembles – was Schwanda the Bagpiper by Jaromír Weinberger. After its triumphant premiere in Prague in 1927, it immediately went on to conquer audiences from Helsinki to Buenos Aires. The delightful 1981 Munich recording starring Hermann Prey, Lucia Popp and Siegfried Jerusalem, conducted by Heinz Wallberg, now makes its debut on CD. “Wholly enjoyable”, proclaimed Gramophone. “An enthusiastically played, expertly sung and lucidly recorded version of a once-loved work. We are unlikely to hear it better done; perhaps the set will win the old piece new friends, as well as delighting old ones.”

Weinberger, J: Schwanda the Bagpiper
sung in German
Hermann Prey (Schwanda), Siegmund Nimsgern (Devil), Alexander Malta (Magician), Gwendolyn Killebrew (Queen), Lucia Popp (Dorota), Siegfried Jerusalem (Babinsky), Albert Gassner (Executioner), Karl Kreile (Judge)
Chor Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Heinz Wallberg