Humperdinck: Fairy-Tale Music (1994)

Engelbert Humperdinck's reputation is so closely tied to Hänsel und Gretel that it's easy to forget he had a long and productive career and considerable popular success writing other things. His output was not limited to fairy tale subjects but they were prominent among his works. This disc brings together excerpts from four of them, the operas Hänsel und Gretel, Königskinder (which he considered his crowning achievement and which had a triumphant premiere at the Metropolitan Opera), and Dornröschen, and incidental music ... Read More

Engelbert Humperdinck's reputation is so closely tied to Hänsel und Gretel that it's easy to forget he had a long and productive career and considerable popular success writing other things. His output was not limited to fairy tale subjects but they were prominent among his works. This disc brings together excerpts from four of them, the operas Hänsel und Gretel, Königskinder (which he considered his crowning achievement and which had a triumphant premiere at the Metropolitan Opera), and Dornröschen, and incidental music for Maeterlinck's Der blaue Vogel. All of the pieces highlight Humperdinck's gift for using the grandly dramatic language of Wagner in the service of material derived from children's literature, as well as his extraordinary ear for orchestration. This is music of heft and substance, but it is handled with a light touch reminiscent of Mendelssohn. The three excerpts from Königskinder are especially attractive, and show Wagner's influence even more explicitly than Hänsel. They share a... Read Less