Relayed from The National Museum of Wales
(Relayed to Daventry 5XX)

National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
(Ieader, Louis Levitus)
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

The 'Siegfried Idyll' was written first for private performance, as a present to Wagner's wife. It belongs to the period when Siegfried, the third of the four big music dramas of the 'Ring,' was almost completed. Wagner and his wife were living at Triebschen, near Lucerne, and there, in 1869, the son Siegfried was born. It was that auspicious event which inspired his Idyll. Its composition and the rehearsals were kept a secret from Frau Wagner, and performed as a surprise to her outside the villa. Wagner himself conducted, and the faithful Hans Richter took the trumpet part. Scored for a comparatively small orchestra, the little piece is based on themes which are with one exception taken from, the music-drama of Siegfried. The-one exception is an old German Cradle-Song which Wagner introduced with the happiest effect.