Richard Wagner

Magic Fire

In the last scene of Wagner's opera 'The Valkyrie', Wotan, the father of the gods, punishes his daughter Brünnhilde for her disobedience. He wants to curse her to a deep sleep for her to be helplessly at the mercy of the first man who wakes her. At her pleading, he mitigates the punishment and instructs Loge, the God of Fire, to surround the sleeping woman with a ring of fire on her rock. Only the most fearless and freest hero (Siegfried) is to get through the fire and wake Brünnhilde as his bride. Here begins the concert paraphrase of Wilhelm Ohmen. As in a transcription, the musical sequence follows Wagner's score. The motifs and, throughout, the rich sonority of the orchestra, from the deep strings to the high woodwinds, are transferred to the piano with virtuoso idiomatic transfigurations, tremolos and arpeggios in the course of the arrangement. Virtuoso fireworks for the concert hall!