Delos Diary

We've been waiting a long time to release the last recording American conductor James DePreist made while music director of the Oregon Symphony. Famous for his special affinity with 19th century classical masterpieces, Maestro DePreist is also an impressive orchestral technician who brings out the very best in every ensemble he conducts.
With the Oregon Symphony he has dazzled us in recent releases with his Respighi, Stravinsky, Korngold and Walton and more. In this new disc, he displays all of his and his orchestra's skills in selections by Wagner, Berlioz and Tchaikovsky. The CD, titled Tragic Lovers, is an apt description of the characters portrayed in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and in Tchaikovsky's and Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet. All three are lush examples of 19th century symphonic works, but how differently they treat the same subject! Listen and learn.
Wagner's lovers, Tristan and Isolde, are mature beings, almost beyond passions of the flesh, yearning to fulfill their love in darkness, oblivion and death.
Both Berlioz' and Tchaikovsky's lovers are young, radiant with life and their passion, victims of the society around them… but each composer sees them differently.
Berlioz' music is a close-up of their love tryst. You are there, breathing with them, as close as they are to one another.
Tchaikovsky's music is a long-shot, a condensed retelling of the whole tragic tale… Friar Lawrence, the marriage, the feuding families, the intense love scene, the final death of the two lovers. One must remember, Tchaikovsky was still quite young when he wrote this piece.
Although familiar works, these three pieces have seldom sounded so eloquent. If there's a spark of romance in your heart, you'll surely find this a recording worth waiting for.