Around the Music Festival

Conductor Kent Nagano and early music ensemble Concerto Köln will be working on the Wagner’s “The Ring of Nibelung” cycle. A project named “Wagner-Lessarten” is funded by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Government. The Cologne University of Music and Dance, the Institute of Music Theatre at the University of Bayreuth, and the Institute of Speech Science at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg will collaborate.

The performance starts in 2021. The venue will be the Philharmonie in Cologne, where the works will be performed in semi-stage form, one work per year. Concerto Köln is an ancient musical instrument ensemble founded in 1985, with about 20 members. The performance requires around 100 musicians, so students from the Cologne University of Music and Dance will participate in the performance.

The entire four-part was premiered at the 1st Bayreuth Festival in 1876. The performances will be performed using instruments from the early 19th century and gut strings, and the playing pitch will be tuned to 435, which is the standard in the early 19th century. The singers are undecided.

Photo：ICE Classic　/　Wojciech Wandzel