Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of German composer
Engelbert Humperdinck


German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, became an international
celebrity with his music for the stage. His lasting hit was his
opera, Hansel and Gretel. There were other huge successes too.
Die Heirat wider Willen (The Reluctant Marriage) was highly
praised after its premiere at the Royal Opera in Berlin, and
Humperdinck took 19 curtain calls in London for his stage work
Das Wunder (The Miracle). In New York, at the Metropolitan Opera
House, after the premiere of Humperdinck’s opera Königskinder
(King's Children), the applause just kept going so that the
management had to turn the lights off, in order to force the
audience to leave.


Humperdinck was born in Siegburg, and from early on his parents
encouraged his musical abilities, provided he focused on his
other school commitments, too. He went on to study at the Cologne
Conservatoire and soon fell under the spell of Wagner whom he
met, and later worked with, in the preparation of Wagner’s opera,
Parsifal. Humperdinck travelled Europe, and in the early 1890s he
saw the premiere of his own opera Hansel and Gretel, which was
performed on sixty-nine German stages within one year.
Humperdinck became a professor of composition in Berlin and,
between his teaching duties, he continued to write many works for
the stage. Opera houses clambered to give the premiere of a new
work by Humperdinck and he became a giant of his times.


Music Featured:


Evening Prayer (Hansel and Gretel) Weihnachten Piano Quintet in G
(Allegro moderato) Hansel and Gretel (Overture) Die Wallfahrt
nach Kevlaar (excerpt) Notturno in G, for violin and string
quartet Junge Lieder Die Lerche String Quartet in C minor Wagner
arr. Humperdinck: Parsifal (Herzeleide) Hansel and Gretel
(excerpt) Nachtstück in A flat Christkindleins Wiegenlied An das
Christkind Frühlingssehnsucht Altdeutsches Liebeslied Wiegenlied
Piano Quintet in G (Adagio) Das Licht der Welt Erinnerung
Liebesorakel Königskinder (excerpt) Moorish Rhapsody (Elegy at
Sunset) Die Heirat wider Willen (excerpt) Winterlied Shakespeare
Suite No 1 (Ferdinand und Miranda) Die Lerche II Verratene Liebe
Unter der Linden Das Wunder (excerpt) String Quartet in C
(Lebhaft)


Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Luke Whitlock for BBC
Audio Wales and West


For full track listings, including artist and recording details,
and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after
broadcast) head to the series page for Engelbert Humperdinck
(1854-1921) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t2k8


And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve
featured on Composer of the Week here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z