Siegfried’s Story
Bonza Brass
Move Records MCD 597
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Siegfried’s Story is an album of selections from Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, as arranged by horn player Mark Papworth. Papworth is a member of Bonza Brass, and is joined on this album by Per Forsberg, tuba, and Rosa Scaffidi, piano.

The music is presented as a journey through the story of The Ring, beginning with the rumbling bass notes of the ‘Prelude’ to Das Rheingold and finishing with ‘Siegfried’s Rhine Journey’ from Götterdämmerung and
visiting other favourites along the way. Melodies are usually given to the horn and bass notes to the tuba; the piano has the task of filling in for the rest of the orchestra. If orchestral Wagner is all about ‘bleeding chunks’, then this is those chunks pared down to the bare bones, exposing the structure of the music and allowing us to listen to it afresh.

– Paul Cooke