Richard Wagner

Lohengrin WWV 75

The prelude to the opera "Lohengrin", which premiered in Weimar in 1850 and marks the transition from Wagner's romantic opera to through-composed music drama, represents a special developmental step among his preludes. In contrast to the previous preludes, which foreshadow the course of the plot in terms of motifs, Wagner already "tells" of the Grail here in mystically interwoven, shimmering timbres: he characterized his "Lohengrin" prelude as the "miraculous return of the Grail in the company of the angelic host". This image is mysteriously and powerfully evoked by music that approaches, intensifies and, after a dense climax, withdraws again - no longer, however, in concrete musical-motivic anticipation, but as if foreshadowing the events.

Wagner shapes this build-up and then subsidence of the music as a precisely constructed crescendo study, using the intensity of the orchestration as an essential dynamic moment by adding and then silencing individual voice groups.

Breitkopf's tried and tested edition of the "Lohengrin" prelude is now available as a contemporary transcription.