Leader, ALFRED CAVE
Conducted by LESLIE HEWARD
The ' Siegfried Idyll Wagner's first purely instrumental work and perhaps the loveliest thing he ever wrote, was not originally intended for the world in general. It was Wagner's personal gift to his second wife, and it was only later that he decided to publish it and permit its public performance. For several years, Wagner had been living in retirement at Triebschen with Cosima, the divorced wife of von Biilow, and in 1869 she bore him a son whom they named Siegfried. Next year he married her and on her birthday (Christmas Day) gave her this delightful surprise-the ' Siegfried Idyll played by a little band placed on the stairs outside her bedroom door.