Wagner: Preludes and Overtures

This set of Wagner's preludes and overtures spans his compositional oeuvre, from Rienzi, his first independent opera, to the rousing prelude to the first act of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Ride of the Valkyries to his last work, Parsifal, from which we hear the Good Friday Magic. They will be performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the Polish conductor Jerzy Semkow, who was music director of the orchestra from 1975 to 1979.