Of the handful of Wagner pieces that survive transfer from the opera house into the concert hall, the Meistersinger overture is by far the most often programmed. Perhaps because Meistersinger is, uniquely for Wagner, essentially a comic opera – though its overall theme is a noble one, the triumph of love and generosity over meanness and pedantry – the cheerful geniality of its overture makes an ideal concert opener. Though commonly referred to as “overture”, Wagner preferred to call it “Prelude”, perhaps reflecting the fact that, like the Prelude to Act III, it is not self-contained (as the overtures to Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser are), but continues without a break into the opera itself. Regarding the authentic concert ending, see section 3 below.

The most remarkable fact about this overture is that, although it is a perfectly respectable pot-pourri of the themes from the opera (though there is notably no mention of Hans Sachs), at the time it was written not a note of the opera yet existed. The libretto was finished at the end of January 1862 after an exceptionally long gestation (the first draft dates back to July 1845), after which Wagner wrote the overture by April, then set to work on the music of the opera, though this was again interrupted for long periods and the full score was not completed until October 1867. But the first performance of the overture was given, under Wagner himself, already in November 1862 in Leipzig.

sources

A  Autograph score (1862) in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, published in facsimile by Drei Masken Verlag in 1923

E  First edition score, published by Schott, Mainz in February 1866

Br  Full score and parts, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden in 1969

An earlier Breitkopf score, incorporating an arrangement (c.1930) by Fritz Hofmann with reduced orchestration, is in some respects bowdlerised, hence is ignored here though the parts reprinted by Kalmus (the only ones downloadable on IMSLP) are unfortunately of this corrupt version. Its most serious flaw is the total omission of the Horn solo in bar 100; but all the horn parts are swapped round constantly throughout; the three Flute parts (all doubling Picc, in different places) are a similar hotchpotch.