Katharsisdrill recommends: Das Rheingold prelude

The opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner was originally intended as a trilogy, but later in the process Wagner added a fourth opera - a satyrplay referring to the form of the tragedies in the ancient Greek Dionysia festivals.

Compared to its three solemn sisters it is a bit shorter and a bit lighter - setting the scene for the sad events that follows.

But as in the rest of this grand work Wagner showed an incredible originality - the old romantic's holy grail: the inclusion of concepts in the music (without making vulgar program music), was in many ways realised in Wagner's many inventions.

Here I want to play the theme of the Rhine, the river whose never ending humming movement is both the musical and pictorial canvas that the whole opera plays out on. It is one of the few pieces in the classical repertoire that is constructed around a drone - a single note that is played through the piece without changing and thus representing the never-ending flow of the river.