Sonate As-Dur WWV 85

Instrumentation: brass ensemble: Bb Picc. Tpt., Eb Tpt., 2 Bb Tpt., 4 Hn., 2 T. Tbn., B. Tbn., Euph, Tba., Timp. (& triangle)

For brass ensemble - score 48 p. & parts. In the audio sample, you can listen to excerpts from this piece.

The Piano Sonata that Wagner composed in the summer of 1853 is a lesser-known work created for Mathilde Wesendonck, the artistic wife of a prosperous silk merchant. Their impossible love affair served as inspiration for Wagner's later masterpiece, Tristan und Isolde. Originally titled 'Eine Sonate für das Album von Frau M.W.,' the Sonata in A-flat Major represents a significant preparatory study for Wagner's four-part cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The core themes of the Sonata, are closely related to Wagner's 'Todesverkündungs-Motiv' and other motifs from the Ring. This sonata, in an arrangement for brass ensemble, serves as a modest counterpart to Wagner's instrumental masterpiece, the Siegfried Idyll.