Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel – Prelude to the Märchenspiel (1891/3)
It could be that this near-perfect little masterpiece might just steal the show, right at the beginning of any symphonic concert: not just because of its traditional association with Christmas – its premiere took place at the Weimar Court Theatre on 23 December 1893 – but mainly through the exceptional quality and appeal of the music itself, from its ravishing opening for horn quartet through the sparklingly colourful succession of “quotes” from the fairy opera itself: indeed, the composer’s skill in integrating and – towards the end – combining such a range of material has been compared with the prelude to Die Meistersinger: mention of which reminds us that we have here one of Wagner’s most loyal disciples.
Yet some might claim the master himself never quite matched the sheer heartwarming tenderness of this wonderful piece – apart from his Siegfried Idyll, that is. No surprise, then, that both works were intended as ardent gifts to spouses, present or future: in the younger composer’s case, as an engagement present during the Festive Season of 1890: the writer Adelheid Wette wished to dramatize some verses she had written, based on the well-known fairy tale in the Brothers Grimm anthology, and requested of her own brother that he set them as a sequence of songs with piano. The resulting Singspiel was eventually expanded into the three-act opera we know today – the composer’s first, aged nearly 40! Yet no less a figure than Richard Strauss was engaged to conduct its first performance. Its endless attraction to children and grownups alike owes much to the Humperdinck siblings’ judicious adaptation of the original tale, carefully softening the more sinister and scary aspects of the familiar encounter with that nasty witch. Indeed, there is barely a trace of her in this entrancing opener – which eventually reaches a serene close, via a return to the Evening Prayer/Dream Pantomime music with which it began, now bathed in ever richer post-Wagnerian harmony. Listeners might well find themselves longing for the ensuing 90 minutes of glorious music – as indeed was granted to this grateful writer earlier in January at the Royal Opera House.
© Alan George
