Chamber Music Corner—Prelude from Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel
by Layne Anspach
Hello musicians!
As we head into December, a month filled with holidays, there are traditions ingrained in our lives, whether exchanging gifts, spending time with friends and family, or enjoying festive music. We have recurring favorites that we hear or perform: Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, or Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, among others. (Okay, maybe Sleigh Ride doesn’t make the top of the list for some—or most—horn players.) Another holiday favorite, especially for Europeans, is Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.
Humperdinck’s opera is one my favorites to perform, especially the Dream Sequence in Act II. Another feature for the horns is the opening prelude, featuring the well-known chorale. A wonderful arrangement of the Prelude-Chorale is for eight horns, set by Jeffry Kirschen of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The piece is worth programming any time of the year.
What associates Humperdinck’s opera with the holiday season? The Grimm Brothers published Hansel and Gretel in 1812, although the original story comes from the early part of the 14th century. While the 1812 version of the story does not suggest any relation to Christmas, the connection comes from the origin of Humperdinck’s version.
Adelheid Wette, Humperdinck’s sister, requested that her brother write four songs for a Christmas performance for her children, probably in 1890. The songs were to Wette’s treatment of the Grimm’s Hänsel und Gretel. The songs and a subsequent Singspiel were well received, and this prompted Humperdinck to write a full opera on the story. The work was finished in 1893 and premiered under Richard Strauss’ baton in the Hoftheater in Weimar on December 23rd, 1893. The sugary sweets and the witch’s gingerbread house helped tie the opera to Christmas, along with subsequent performances which were scheduled at Christmas time. The Metropolitan Opera’s first full opera radio broadcast was of Hänsel und Gretel on Christmas day, 1931, further cementing the opera as a Christmas classic.
Hornists from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig can be heard on the reference recording.
