Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Rouse on Wagner
“Das Rheingold” is the opening work in a 4-opera cycle, Wagner titled “The Ring of the Nibelungen.” No pun intended, but one of the most striking moments in that opera occurs when the Norse gods Wotan and Loge descend to Nibelheim, where the poor race of Nibelung dwarfs are toiling away under the spell of Alberich, a fellow dwarf possessing a magic gold ring of incredible power – but bearing a terrible curse. Maybe the battery of tuned anvils heard in that scene sparked the imagination of the American composer Christopher Rouse in response to a commission from percussion virtuoso Evelyn Glennie, since the work he wrote for her, which premiered on today’s date in 1998, was titled “Der gerettete Alberich (or, “Alberich Saved”), subtitled "a fantasy for percussion and orchestra on themes of Wagner." “Rather than a concerto,” said Rouse, “[it’s] a fantasy … on themes of Wagner, with the soloist taking on the ‘role’ of Alberich. Much of the material in the work is derived from Wagner’s motifs associated with Alberich, among them the motifs for the curse, the power of gold, the renunciation of love, annihilation, the Nibelungs, and, of course, the Ring itself.”