Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2023
Shortlisted - World Premiere Recording (Rediscovery)

Natalya Romaniw (Röschen), Claire Barnett-Jones (Iolanthe), Robert Murray (Heinrich), Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf), Matthew Brook (Peter), BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, John Andrews

For over 100 years the only opera by a woman to have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Der Wald is a taut, brooding drama where the simplicity of village life comes under threat from the uncontrollable desires unleashed by the darkness of the forest. Richly orchestrated, harmonically daring, and demanding a huge expressive range from the cast, the narrative drives relentlessly forward from wedding to tragedy in a single act, observed pitilessly by the eternal spirits of the forest. John Andrews conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in the first ever recording of this work, using Smyth's English version of the libretto.

"Der Wald may not be such an outstanding piece [as The Wreckers], but it is well worth getting to know. While Harry Brewster’s somewhat naïve libretto holds it back, Smyth’s score shows an impressive range of skills...Andrews rescues another lost English opera from oblivion and leads an excellent performance: it would be difficult to imagine finer accounts of the central roles than those given here…" - BBC Music Magazine, December 2023.