Daniel Barenboim and Elīna Garanča with Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder”

Richard Wagner paid tribute to her with his Tristan: Mathilde Wesendonck, the composer’s muse and author of five poems which Wagner set to music in his Wesendonck Lieder. The work, heard here with Daniel Barenboim and Elīna Garanča, features texts full of yearning and dreams. César Franck was impressed by Wagner and combined his style with an unmistakable French tone – for example, in his most important work, the Symphony in D minor.