6CD set - A treasure trove of Strauss lieder, Richard Strauss' many lieder are among the glories of the literature. The legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's universally considered as among the greatest ever interpreters of the lied form, and one the 20th centuries great baritones. Accompanied by pianist Gerald Moore, a towering figure in the art song field.

For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvor�k - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).

The collaborative efforts, the mutual emulation and inspiration of Sir Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome have spanned 18 years, led to one of the world's greatest and most versatile virtuoso ensembles and to acclaimed live and studio recordings showcasing an eclectic selection of symphonic and choral music. Their repertoire features already legendary performances of Verdi's Requiem and Quattro pezzi sacri. In addition, their recording of Bruckner's 8th Symphony features here for the very first time! This box brings together all the recordings that the British conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (b.1959) made with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the years from 2005 to 2022 for Warner Classics.

Intense, passionate, and impeccable in its musical disciplines, the Berlin-based Artemis Quartet "consistently finds a balance between projecting musical structure and conveying immediacy." Confirming that verdict from the New York Times is this 23CD collection, encompassing all the recordings the ensemble made between 1996 and 2018.

The Artemis Quartet began life in 1989 and developed a particular reputation in the central Austro-German repertoire. If Beethoven justly asserts a powerful presence, the scope of this collection extends as far as Eastern Europe and South America and well into the 20th century. Over the period of nearly a quarter of a century documented in this box, there were changes in the Artemis Quartet's lineup, but as founding cellist Eckart Runge explains, this "brought new inspiration - an opportunity to broaden horizons and introduce fresh ideas."

The ensemble suffered a tragic loss with the untimely death of violist Friedemann Weigle in 2015. Just days earlier, the Artemis had completed a recording of Dvořák's lyrical and poignant 'American' Quartet; it is now released for the very first time. This landmark box is completed by a comprehensive booklet which includes reminiscences from members of the Artemis Quartet and from sound engineers who collaborated with them.

First performed in Dresden in 1909, Elektra was Strauss's first collaboration (of many) with the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and is the most modernist of all of his operas. Based on the (heavily reworked) play by Sophocles, Hofmannsthal's version concentrates on the inner thoughts and feelings of Elektra as she holds individual conversations with other members of her family. Strauss's score is exceptionally adventurous harmonically, and famously features the Elektra Chord (a simultaneous combination of E major and C sharp major). The orchestration is exceptionally lavish - even by Strauss's standards - featuring eight horns, six trumpets, double timpani, and two harps. The performance was recorded live in Bergen in December 2023, Edward Gardner conducting a cast led by the great Swedish dramatic soprano Ir�ne Theorin, one of the finest Elektras of our time.

The "Tondichtung", or tone poem, was a popular European genre from the mid-19th to early 20th century. German composer Richard Strauss excelled in this form, producing ten works. A tone poem is a single-movement orchestral piece meant to evoke moods, stories, or scenes without following a strict narrative. Strauss's Don Juan, Op. 20 (1888), was inspired by Nikolaus Lenau's poetic take on the Don Juan legend, portraying him as a man seeking the perfect woman and ultimately succumbing to despair. Strauss's orchestral work mirrors this, opening with energetic themes of Don Juan's adventures, featuring lyrical passages for his loves, and concluding with dark chords symbolizing his demise. In 1898, Strauss composed Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), a six-section tone poem inspired by Beethoven's Eroica, reflecting his own life and career. Themes depict the hero, his adversaries, companion, battles, peace, and eventual retirement. Critics debated Strauss's self-portrait as arrogant or humorous, but the work remains a testament to artistic struggle and triumph. Austrian conductor Hans Graf, Chief Conductor and Quantedge Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) since 2020, is known for his curiosity, creative programming, and commanding presence. An acclaimed guest conductor worldwide, he has won multiple awards including the �sterreichischer Musiktheaterpreis and recorded works by Mozart, Stravinsky, and Berg. Founded in 1979, the SSO is Singapore's flagship orchestra, performing year-round and achieving global recognition, including rankings by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. Under Graf, the orchestra has released over 50 recordings and revived rare works by composers like Kozlowski, Klenau and Ogerman. The SSO forms part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also encompasses choruses, youth orchestras, and major music festivals.

- Series of award-winning recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon continue with a new album of orchestral works by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). This release includes Strauss' longest and final major orchestral work, the Alpine Symphony together with Four Songs, Op. 27 sung by soprano Louise Alder, one of the most in demand singers today.

Richard Strauss described his two-act opera 'Intermezzo' as a 'bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes'. The soprano role of Christine with her shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss's wife Pauline, while the successful Court Conductor Robert Storch is Richard Strauss's alter ego in a reality drama that was avant-garde for it's time. This acclaimed production from director Tobias Kratzer brings 'Intermezzo' into the present day, highlighting Strauss's own clever switches between reality and fiction with stunning visual effects and a superbly characterful cast.

Richard Strauss described his two-act opera 'Intermezzo' as a 'bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes'. The soprano role of Christine with her shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss's wife Pauline, while the successful Court Conductor Robert Storch is Richard Strauss's alter ego in a reality drama that was avant-garde for it's time. This acclaimed production from director Tobias Kratzer brings 'Intermezzo' into the present day, highlighting Strauss's own clever switches between reality and fiction with stunning visual effects and a superbly characterful cast.

Santtu conducts Strauss: Ein Heldenleben is the sixth album from Philharmonia Records. Con- ducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, this performance was recorded at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall. PRAISE FOR Santtu conducts Shostakovich: Symphony 10 "Themes from the previous movements are intriguingly revived and intertwined and the sheer energy of Rouvali's onslaught upon the music almost convinces us of the heroism of resistance and endurance, ultimately rewarded by explosive, joyous liberation." - MusicWeb International "The first movement is both atmospheric and flowing, sensitively delineating each stage in the unfolding psychological drama." - Gramophone

Strauss, R.: Heldenleben (Ein) / Tod Und Verklarung (Mengelb

STRAUSS FOR EVER

RICHARD STRAUSS

The recording is characterised by an uncompromising fidelity to the work, which makes it possible to experience Richard Strauss' masterpiece in all it's facets. All of the passages that are usually cancelled, which are essential for understanding the work and it's power, have been opened up. Richard Strauss himself emphasised in his memoirs how important words and singing were to him in the opera. He reported that the conductor Ernst von Schuch unleashed the orchestra at the dress rehearsal to such an extent that Strauss had to muffle him in order to maintain a balance with the voices. This admonition accompanied Julien Salemkour and Barbara Krieger as they rehearsed Elektra - a process for which they made intensive use of the covid period. The production was an extraordinary endeavour and an impressive example of creative solutions in difficult times. When it was hardly possible to realise larger music projects, the team decided on an unusual approach: The orchestra was to be recorded first, and the soloists would sing their parts later to the existing orchestral recording - and so a number of international artists came together under the most difficult corona conditions at different times in different places for the recordings. Barbara Krieger took on the title role - an artist who has recently been celebrated in particular as Elektra, Fidelio-Leonore and Isolde. Other renowned Strauss interpreters such as Astrid Weber, Sanja Anastasia and Jochen Kupfer complete the ensemble. Tenor Sotiris Charalampous makes his impressive debut as Aegisth. The internationally acclaimed conductor Julien Salemkour gives the singers unprecedented space to sing and breathe, while at the same time unfolding a tonal opulence that does justice to the origins of this score in all it's facets. Experience an Elektra that impresses with it's unleashed orchestral sound as well as it's extraordinary text comprehensibility - a combination that rarely succeeds.

Oscar Wilde's play Salome was conceived for the actress Sarah Bernhardt and was originally planned for performance in London, in 1892. The play was blocked by the sensor (it was forbidden at the time to depict biblical characters on stage) and so first given in Paris instead, in 1896. Wilde never saw his play performed, as he was serving a prison sentence for homosexual acts whilst the only two performances in his lifetime occurred. Subsequently the play gained popularity in Germany, and having attended a performance in Berlin in 1902, Strauss determined that this would be the subject for his third opera. First performed in 1905, Strauss's Salome has gone on to become much better-known than Wilde's play, and is regularly performed at opera houses around the world. This live recording was made at a performance at the Usher Hall, in Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2022. Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by an outstanding cast of soloists, led by Malin Bystrom in the title role, Gerhard Siegel as Herod, Katarina Dalayman as Herodias, and Johan Reuter as John the Baptist.

Since it's foundation in 1989, the "Richard Strauss Days" in Garmisch-Partenkirchen have changed in many ways. What has remained unchanged, however, is the special atmosphere of Strauss' adopted home in Southern Bavaria, where the composer not only spent around 40 years of his life, but also created a large portion of his works. Creating an authentic artistic atmosphere with a "workshop character", enabling the audience to enjoy Strauss' works at the place of his inspiration - surrounded by the natural Alpine landscape - is not only the aim of this festival, but also a unique feature of it. To mark the 75th anniversary of Richard Strauss' death, the "Richard Strauss Days" have started a new edition in cooperation with Gramola to document the festival in live recordings. Remy Ballot, Conductor in Residence since 2023, presented the tone poems "Don Juan" and "Ein Heldenleben" with the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024 as a brilliant first chapter of this edition.

Classical Music

Stravinsky, I.: Rite of Spring / Strauss, R.: Don Juan / Til

...Another later release, the 1962 Zarathustra, suggests greater spaciousness and dignity than its predecessor [Reiner's 1954 Zarathustra] due partly to the freed-up string sound, partly to Reiner’s broader tempi. On the same disc, he argues his own gaudy arrangement of the Rosenkavalier waltzes with tremendous panache and Byron Janis glitters with Lisztian transcendentalism in the Burleske.

-- David Nice, BBC Music Magazine
reviewing these performances previously reissued as part of RCA 68635

LS had almost unqualified praise for the live 1953 Carnegie Hall recording of Don Quixote. "Nothing," he wrote "more clearly demonstrates Toscanini's true quality than the fact that it is possible to take one of his ordinary (one cannot use the word 'routine', for obvious reasons) broadcast performances and issue it in permanent form on record to complete satisfaction". He noted a momentary slip in the first variation; equally, one might like the two concluding chords of the work to have been re-made. But what a tour de force this is of orchestral wizardry and musical characterization in one of the repertory's most difficult works. What's more, Toscanini honours Strauss's original plan by having the orchestra's own front-desk cellist and viola player as the soloists. (Only a week later Carbon Cooley would distinguish himself as viola soloist in Toscanini's broadcast from Carnegie Hall of Berlioz's Harold in Italy—RCA 0 RD85755, 2/88.) I think it is reasonable to prefer this performance musically and sonically to Toscanini's 1938 NBC recording (Toscanini Society—nla) and to Strauss's own version with Mainardi recently reissued by DG (11/90), where the playing of the Staatskapelle Berlin is frankly not in the same league as that of the NBC musicians.

-- Gramophone [1/1991]

LEGENDARY STRAUSS RECORDINGS

This disc includes both stereo and monaural recordings.

STRAUSS: DON QUIXOTE, TILL EUL

Those who have been following RCA's Fritz Reiner Collection will know what to expect from these outstanding digital remasters. It is astonishing to reflect that this earlier of Reiner's two Chicago recordings of Also sprach Zarathustra was made on March 8th, 1954 in stereo when Toscanini was still (just) recording in low-fl in New York's Carnegie Hall. The sound may be tonally fierce by current standards (less so than many oftpraised Mercury reissues) but the balance is fully acceptable, with the first and second violins set close to the listener (and the microphones) on either side of the podium, and the basses hard left. By the time of taping the Bourgeois gentilhomme suite and Rosenkavalier waltzes, Reiner had adopted a more conventional layout, and the engineering seems a degree or two more 'modern', capturing the distinctive ambience of the hall.

Reiner's 1954 Also sprach is arguably more characteristic than his 1962 RCA remake (7/88). That is to say, it is even more intense and extrovert. In his second year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the conductor was already getting a thrilling response from the strings, although woodwind intonation could be a problem. Confident and well played as it is, the spectacular opening sunrise inevitably lacks the impact of, say, Preyin's Telarc recording (the organ is particularly disappointing). Nor is there the dark solemnity of and detail in the bass familiar from Karajan's DO versions. What we have instead is a measure of raw passion and forward thrust unequalled on disc. In reflective passages, conductor and/or engineers display some reluctance to achieve a real pianissimo, but as the tempo builds Reiner invariably creates great excitement and the orchestral playing is marvellous.

The Bourgeois geniilhomme suite (slightly abridged here) is not a great favourite of mine and I felt that the Chicagoans' undoubted virtuosity was not in the end preferable to the RPO's more delicate approach under Sir Thomas Beecham (EMI) despite the superior sonics. However, you feel about the disconnected Rosenkavalier waltzes, Reiner's self-consciously 'brilliant' manner provides a suitable showcase for a great orchestra at its peak.

-- David Gutman, Gramophone [12/1992]

Throughout his career Fritz Reiner showed a particular affinity for the music of Richard Strauss. Here he delivers an exceptionally vivid account of Don Quixote – each bizarre episode from the eccentric knight’s adventures is portrayed with razor-sharp insight. One notices, in particular, Reiner’s miraculous attention to detail, his unfailing grip on the structural direction of the work and the superb response from both soloist and orchestra. With its flashes of sardonic wit, the earlier Burleske makes for an excellent coupling, and illustrates Reiner’s formidable prowess as a concerto accompanist. By any standards, a self-recommending issue.
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine