N ezet-S eguin leads Siegfried at Baden-Baden

Yannick N<!-- -->ézet-S<!-- -->éguin’s Siegfried at Baden-Baden marks a significant departure from the "wall of sound" approach to Wagner. By treating the Leitmotif (a short, recurring musical phrase associated with a particular person, place, or idea) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitmotif] system with the delicacy of a chamber work, N<!-- -->ézet-S<!-- -->éguin clarified the psychological complexity of the [Score on IMSLP. The performance emphasized the score’s innovative woodwind coloring over the traditional brass dominance. This transparency did not diminish the drama; it revealed the structural joints of the Ring cycle, showing Wagner as a master of detail rather than just scale. The result is a diagnostic of the work's internal logic, stripped of its heavy late-Romantic accretion.