Wagner Concert in Leipzig 1988 DDR 3 - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (’Wach Auf’ and Finale)

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Conducted by Kurt Masur 1988 Fernsehen der DDR Final part of the Leipzig Wagner concert features the greatest ’Wach auf!’ I have ever heard, the Rundfunkchor are simply magnificent here and provide a thrilling conclusion to what was a supremely satisfying concert in the GDR. The writer and composer Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) was born in the city of Leipzig in Saxony. The city of his birth paid tribute to one of its most famous sons in 1988, then part of the German Democratic Republic, with an all Wagner concert from the New Gewandhaus concert hall, rebuilt by the GDR government and opened in in 1981. Kurt Masur conducts, with soprano Karan Armstrong and bass-baritone Theo Adam singing excerpts from Tristan und Isolde and Meistersinger, with equally stunning contributions from the Leipzig Radio Choir.