Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra) Junge Philharmonie Wien & Michael Lessky

• Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828): Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra):
• 1 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): I. Overture 06:00
• 2 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): II. The Palindrome 01:15
• 3 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): III. The Spark Has Flared Up 07:03
• 4 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): IV. Overture 05:10
• 5 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): V. Behind the Scenes 02:04
• 6 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): VI. Fury, Tremble! 05:31
• 7 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): VII. There They Leave in the Clear Moonlight 02:54
• 8 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): VIII. Chorus of Spirits 03:32
• 9 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): IX. Ha! What Happened to Me? 05:44
• 10 Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra): X. Finale 04:13
• Total Runtime 43:26

Info for Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra)

Franz Schubert’s opera “The Magic Harp” was premiered in 1820 at Theater an der Wien, Vienna, but was withdrawn after only eight performances due to in part devastating response from audience and critics (“nonsense and tedious”, “wretched trash”). The apparently poor libretto and detailed records of the staging were lost, only the music survived, with the overture later serving as the overture to “Rosamunde” and becoming extremely popular. The musicologist and Schubert specialist Brian Newbould transformed the existing melodramas into an orchestral suite, which was premiered in 2019 by the Junge Philharmonie Wien under conductor Michael Lessky. The present world premiere recording of this Magic Harp Suite shows that the music of the then 23-year-old Schubert is already quite progressive and forward-looking, and full of gripping drama in support of the action of the libretto, which could be reconstructed in excerpts.

Junge Philharmonie
Michael Lessky, conductor

Michael Lessky
born and educated in Vienna, among his career steps with Claudio Abbado, recently made his debuts with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and Ossodre Orchestra Nacional Montevideo conducting a Mozart and Schubert-program. 2020 follows his debut with Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Israel.

2019 he conducted the world-premier of Schubert’s „Zauberharfen-Suite“ (magic harp, Brian Newbould), the 3rd act of Tosca, Bruckner’s 7th symphony and Wagner at Südtiroler Festspiele (Italy) and Mozart‘s Requiem and an Opera-Gala concert at European Music Open in Romania. 2018 he initiated a three-years-cycle of all Mozart piano-concerts with young selected pianists at the MuTh, concert-hall of famous Vienna’s Boys-choir. The 10th symphony of Mahler was in his programs of this year, too.

Leading his 1997 founded Vienna Young Philharmonic Orchestra he gave concerts in China, Brasil, Peru, Italy, Germany, in most of EU enlargment-countries and in all famous concert-halls of Austria. Among his soloists there are often members of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and world-famous singers as Agnes Baltsa, Chen Reiss, Josè Carreras, Robert Holl or Bernd Weikl.

Booklet for Die Zauberharfe, D. 644 (Arr. B. Newbould for Orchestra)