- 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

SALOME

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

STRAUSS FOR EVER

RICHARD STRAUSS: ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA

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.

STRAUSS: ZARATHUSTRA, DON JUAN

Richard Strauss at his most elegant; Dag Wirén almost certainly so. 'Certainly' without the qualification I cannot say, for I have been enjoying this Serenade these last 33 years without opportunity of hearing any other of Wirén's music. Strauss however, is in a different case. And he is indeed here, I can say with some certainty, at his most elegant.

The original emergence of the Bourgeois gentilhomme suite was not without its difficulties; but in the end the association with earlier music, the use of a substantially smaller orchestra than usual, and perhaps the association with gentility, bourgeois or otherwise, led Strauss to write some of his most immediately charming music. Wirén, on the other band, I suspect, was born (like two namesakes of Strauss) to write charming music without the bother of taking preliminary thought.

Both composers are helped along greatly by the most beautiful performances offered their music by the Canadian orchestra centred in Ottawa, There is silky string playing in both pieces; in the Strauss especially so on the part of the solo violin, Walter Prystawski. And in the Strauss, again, there is wind playing to match. And if in the absence of a wind contribution there should be felt to be it some gap in the Wirén, that gap is quite certainly filled by the most expert layout of string texture on the composer's part in the first place. Also of the first order is the quality of the recording Balance goes awry temporarily in the Strauss, where initially the orchestral piano is recorded much too strongly, as if the excellent player were embarking on the Grieg or the Tchaikovsky. But he is not; and later this is recognized. And the good production, also, misses one trick: the only clue to how the music is distributed between sides is given (none too clearly, as it happens) by the record's label; which is useless to anybody engaged in listening to that record playing. Nevertheless, this is by no means a material difficulty in the way of highly recommending the record as a whole. Or of recommending the Wirén as an example of what some other contemporary composers might be writing for the benefit of the long-suffering human race, but, somewhat conspicuously, are not.

-- Gramophone [12/1985, reviewing Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Serenade]

Includes work(s) by Richard Strauss. Ensemble: Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Conductors: Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Leonard Bernstein. Soloists: Hilde Gueden, Elisabeth Höngen, Sena Jurinac, Hilde Konetzni, Lotte Lehmann, Christa Ludwig, Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Leonie Rysanek, Maria Reining, Anneliese Rothenberger.

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