Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103, WWV 103

The Siegfried Idyll (1870) is among the most intimate and tender works Wagner ever composed, written as a birthday surprise for his wife Cosima on Christmas morning 1870, performed by thirteen musicians on the staircase of their villa at Tribschen. It weaves together themes from his opera Siegfried with a German lullaby and an original cradle-song theme, creating a seamless meditation on domestic happiness and the birth of their son Siegfried. Though Wagner later — reluctantly — allowed it to be published and performed by full orchestra to raise funds, it remains most perfectly realised in the chamber-orchestra version closest to its original conception.