This new release is the first recording of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo and its current chief conductor, Paavo Järvi. Starting with Ein Heldenleben and Don Juan, two of the most popular tones poems by Richard Strauss, as Volume 1, Paavo Järvi and the NHK SO embark on a three-volume Richard Strauss Cycle. These are the first-ever recordings of these tone poems conducted by Paavo Järvi.

Celebrating its 90th season, NHK SO has one of the longest histories among Japanese orchestras, with a rich and long tradition of performing the music of Richard Strauss under such illustrious conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Othmar Suitner, Lovro von Matacic, Horst Stein, Charles Dutoit, and Vladimir Ashkenazy among others.

These works were recorded live in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, one of the world's most renowned concert halls, with optimum DSD technology.

In these live recordings from 2011 and 2014 respectively, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and its longtime chief conductor Mariss Jansons present, in their second release of works by Richard Strauss, two of the composer’s "heroic" tone poems. With "Don Juan", the young and aspiring Strauss proved to be a prematurely consummate master of the symphonic poem genre. "Ein Heldenleben" ("A Hero's Life"), written at the turn of the 20th c., ranks as one of the great touchstones for a symphony orchestra – and with its extensive solo violin part, for a concertmaster too.

Richard Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau, Op. 80, TrV 265 (Reco

"The Woman without a Shadow" by Richard Strauss was just the ticket for Music Director Sebastian Weigle at the Frankfurt Opera, so it is quite appropriate to make available this opera on CD. Strauss specialist Weigle has brought together excellent singers and musicians for the stage debut, including Terje Stensvold in this 2014 Frankfurt Opera series. - Oehmas, (Translated from German text.)

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Strauss's musically ravishing comic masterpiece is given a visual updating in director Richard Jones's stylish and 'gently subversive' Glyndebourne staging, one which offers 'a dreamlike distortion not just of Vienna's 18th-century past, but also of everything we know about reality' (Financial Times). Created to mark the 150th centenary of the composer's birth, the production is packed with energy and wit, its impeccable stagecraft by no means detracting from the first-class singing which underpins, among others, Tara Erraught's 'touching' (Guardian) performance as Octavian, Kate Royal's 'most graceful of Marschallins' and Lars Woldt's 'pitch-perfect' Baron Ochs (Sunday Telegraph). Conductor Robin Ticciati brings clarity and detail to the score, infusing the music with spirit and humanity.

R E V I E W:

"Lars Woldt’s Baron Ochs is rich in tone and dialect, a deliciously crude idiot, yet surprising in his muted final line and some sarcastic inflections opposite Octavian. Comic interest never flags, thanks to Jones’s deft blocking and inventive gags. Conductor Robin Ticciati, chief at Glyndebourne, keeps the London Philharmonic at a keen pitch, spreading glitter over all. It’s the standard menu in major companies today — visual provocation, musical reassurance."

-- David J. Baker, Opera News [11/2015]

Richard Strauss
DER ROSENKAVALIER
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Octavian - Tara Erraught
The Marschallin - Kate Royal
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau - Lars Woldt
Sophie - Teodora Gheorghiu
Herr von Faninal - Michael Kraus
Marianne Leitmetzerin - Miranda Keys
Valzacchi - Christopher Gillett
Annina - Helene Schneiderman
Italian Tenor - Andrej Dunaev
Notary - Gwynne Howell
Innkeeper - Robert Wörle
Police Inspector - Scott Conner

Glyndebourne Chorus
(chorus master: Jeremy Bines)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Richard Jones, stage director
Paul Steinberg, set designer
Nicky Gillibrand, costume designer
Mimi Jordan Sherin, lighting designer

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, May 2014

Bonus:
- Robin Ticciati, Taking the Baton
- The Trio
- Sights and smells of a production
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 191 mins (opera) + 22 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

Also available on Blu-ray

Strauss's musically ravishing comic masterpiece is given a visual updating in director Richard Jones's stylish and 'gently subversive' Glyndebourne staging, one which offers 'a dreamlike distortion not just of Vienna's 18th-century past, but also of everything we know about reality' (Financial Times). Created to mark the 150th centenary of the composer's birth, the production is packed with energy and wit, its impeccable stagecraft by no means detracting from the first-class singing which underpins, among others, Tara Erraught's 'touching' (Guardian) performance as Octavian, Kate Royal's 'most graceful of Marschallins' and Lars Woldt's 'pitch-perfect' Baron Ochs (Sunday Telegraph). Conductor Robin Ticciati brings clarity and detail to the score, infusing the music with spirit and humanity.

R E V I E W:

"Lars Woldt’s Baron Ochs is rich in tone and dialect, a deliciously crude idiot, yet surprising in his muted final line and some sarcastic inflections opposite Octavian. Comic interest never flags, thanks to Jones’s deft blocking and inventive gags. Conductor Robin Ticciati, chief at Glyndebourne, keeps the London Philharmonic at a keen pitch, spreading glitter over all. It’s the standard menu in major companies today — visual provocation, musical reassurance."

-- David J. Baker, Opera News [11/2015]

Richard Strauss
DER ROSENKAVALIER

Octavian - Tara Erraught
The Marschallin - Kate Royal
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau - Lars Woldt
Sophie - Teodora Gheorghiu
Herr von Faninal - Michael Kraus
Marianne Leitmetzerin - Miranda Keys
Valzacchi - Christopher Gillett
Annina - Helene Schneiderman
Italian Tenor - Andrej Dunaev
Notary - Gwynne Howell
Innkeeper - Robert Wörle
Police Inspector - Scott Conner

Glyndebourne Chorus
(chorus master: Jeremy Bines)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Richard Jones, stage director
Paul Steinberg, set designer
Nicky Gillibrand, costume designer
Mimi Jordan Sherin, lighting designer

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, May 2014

Bonus:
- Robin Ticciati, Taking the Baton
- The Trio
- Sights and smells of a production
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 191 mins (opera) + 22 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)

Also available on Blu-ray

Richard Strauss
DER ROSENKAVALIER

Feldmarschallin - Krassimira Stoyanova Baron Ochs - Günther Groissböck
Octavian - Sophie Koch
Faninal - Adrian Eröd
Sophie - Mojca Erdmann
Leitmetzerin - Silvana Dussmann
Valzacchi - Rudolf Schasching
Annina - Wiebke Lehmkuhl
Sänger - Stefan Pop

Salzburg Festival Children’s Chorus
(chorus master: Wolfgang Götz)
Vienna State Opera Chorus
(chorus master: Ernst Raffelsberger)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Harry Kupfer, stage director
Hans Schavernoch, set designer
Yan Tax, costume designer
Jürgen Hoffmann, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 08–14 August 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese Running time: 146 mins
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)

Classical Music

RICHARD STRAUSS: June Anderson; Roberta Sacca; Scott Mac Allister; Daniel Lewis Williams; Birgit Remmer; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia/Stefan Anton Reck; Paul Curran, director; NTSC All Region; DTS 5.1; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; 114 mins; Subtitled in Ita RICHARD STRAUSS: Daphne.

Also available on Blu-ray

Richard Strauss’s last stage work is an opera about opera as an art form, depicting the creation of a music drama in a wise and witty way. Which came first – words or music? That is the question that Strauss and his librettist Clemens Krauss address through the story of a Countess torn between a composer and a poet. “Renée Fleming is a world-class Countess, moving and intense … All around her there is luxury casting: Bo Skovhus as the Count, Michael Schade as Flamand, Markus Eiche as Olivier, Kurt Rydl as the theatre director La Roche, the wonderful Angelika Kirchschlager as Clairon – all strike exactly the right note, as do the singers in the smaller roles, turning this Capriccio into an event of the first importance.” (Der Kurier, Vienna)

Subtitles: G, E, F, Sp, Kor, Jap, Chin
Booklet: E, G, F
No. of Discs: 2
Run time: 166 MINS
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1

-----

REVIEW:

The greatest pleasure of the performance undoubtedly comes in the wonderful playing of the Staatsoper orchestra, the sweet, tender strings and the mellifluous horns in particular; and Christoph Eschenbach conducts a leisurely and loving account of Strauss's gorgeous score.

– MusicWeb International

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Director Katharina Thoma sets Richard Strauss’ comedy in a country house in the South Downs (a surrogate for Glyndebourne), immediately before and during the Second World War. Hofmannsthals’ conceit—that a hapless young composer has to accept the simultaneous performance of his new tragic opera with a burlesque from a commedia dell’arte troupe—is turned into a touching wartime drama of nurses, invalids and airmen, and of painful delusions and soul searching, before final happiness.

ACCLAIM
“Everything fits superbly and the production captures the fragility of happiness and the undertow of melancholy better than any I can remember. The mellow glow of the LPO under Vladimir Jurowski’s sensitive baton complements the vision perfectly, while a fine cast enhances the pleasure. Soile Isokoski is superb as Ariadne…” – The Evening Standard

“Conductor Vladimir Jurowski ends his 13-year reign as music director by drawing sumptuous Straussian playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 40 years of watching Ariadne, the opera has never moved me more.” – The Daily Mail

Richard Strauss
ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

Ariadne / Prima Donna - Soile Isokoski
Zerbinetta - Laura Claycomb
Bacchus / Tenor - Sergey Skorokhodov
Music Master - Thomas Allen
Composer - Kate Lindsey
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Katharina Thoma, stage director
Julia Müer, set designer
Irina Bartels, costume designer
Olaf Winter, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes, March 2013

Bonus:
- When Two Worlds Collide
- Thomas Allen at Glyndebourne
- Vladimir Jurowski on his final production as Music Director
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2. 0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean
Running time: 121 mins (opera) + 21 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (blu-ray)

Also available on Blu-ray

Director Katharina Thoma sets Richard Strauss’ comedy in a country house in the South Downs (a surrogate for Glyndebourne), immediately before and during the Second World War. Hofmannsthals’ conceit—that a hapless young composer has to accept the simultaneous performance of his new tragic opera with a burlesque from a commedia dell’arte troupe—is turned into a touching wartime drama of nurses, invalids and airmen, and of painful delusions and soul searching, before final happiness.

ACCLAIM
“Everything fits superbly and the production captures the fragility of happiness and the undertow of melancholy better than any I can remember. The mellow glow of the LPO under Vladimir Jurowski’s sensitive baton complements the vision perfectly, while a fine cast enhances the pleasure. Soile Isokoski is superb as Ariadne…” – The Evening Standard

“Conductor Vladimir Jurowski ends his 13-year reign as music director by drawing sumptuous Straussian playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 40 years of watching Ariadne, the opera has never moved me more.” – The Daily Mail

Richard Strauss
ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

Ariadne / Prima Donna - Soile Isokoski
Zerbinetta - Laura Claycomb
Bacchus / Tenor - Sergey Skorokhodov
Music Master - Thomas Allen
Composer - Kate Lindsey
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Katharina Thoma, stage director
Julia Müer, set designer
Irina Bartels, costume designer
Olaf Winter, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes, March 2013

Bonus:
- When Two Worlds Collide
- Thomas Allen at Glyndebourne
- Vladimir Jurowski on his final production as Music Director
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2. 0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean
Running time: 121 mins (opera) + 21 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

A luxurious edition of Arabella, the last collaboration between Strauss and von Hofmannstahl, in a 3-CD set with gorgeous 200-page book and featuring a super-cast of Straussian singers! The Dutch National Opera is the largest opera company in the Netherlands. Under the leadership of artistic director Pierre Audi, DNO has grown into one of the most important and pioneering opera companies in Europe. Jacquelyn Wagner (Arabella) studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Oakland University in Michigan. She has won numerous international competitions. In the 2013 2014 season, she debuted in the role of Arabella in Minneapolis. She has also made her debut in Carnegie Hall, where she performed Diemut in Feuersnot with the American Symphony Orchestra.

-----

REVIEW:

Irresistibly moving … brings out the very best in this work …well worth hearing.

-Gramophone

Also available on Blu-ray

Arabella is the last collaboration between Richard Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and charts the twists and turns of Arabella and her sister, Zdenka, in finding true love. Hofmannsthal’s untimely death meant he never finalised the libretto, leaving many ambiguities in the story that have to be resolved by the Director and singers of each production. Director, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, has created a superbly convincing version of Arabella, starring Emily Magee as the beautiful Arabella and Tomasz Konieczny as the fateful right man, Mandryka. With the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, under the direction of Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst, this is a truly magnificent production.

Richard Strauss
ARABELLA

Arabella – Emily Magee
Zdenka – Genia Kühmeier
Mandryka – Tomasz Konieczny
Matteo – Michael Schade
Count Waldner – Wolfgang Bankl
Adelaide – Zoryana Kushpler

Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martin Schebesta)
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Sven-Eric Bechtolf, stage director
Rolf Glittenberg, set designer
Marianne Glittenberg, costume designer

Recorded live at the Vienna State Opera House on 6 and 9 May 2012

Bonus:
- Cast Gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 152 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:

R. STRAUSS Arabella • Franz Welser-Möst, cond; Emily Magee (Arabella); Genia Kühmeier (Zdenka); Tomasz Konieczny (Mandryka); Michael Schade (Matteo); Wolfgang Bankl (Count Waldner); Zoryana Kushpler (Adelaide); Daniela Fally (Fiakermilli); Vienna State Opera O & Ch • ELECTRIC PICTURE EPC04BD (Blu-ray: 152:00) Live: Vienna 2012

Arabella is one of Richard Strauss’s more popular works, his last in collaboration with master librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who died before final editing could be completed. Although no literary gem, the story is a quite enjoyable little romantic comedy of the type that has made the movie industry millions of dollars in the past three-quarters century. Girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love, complications arise that put girl and boy at odds, complications are cleverly resolved, girl and boy presumably live happily ever after. Arabella is our girl, of course, a lyric soprano debutante, and Strauss provides her with much lovely music, particularly in act III, in one of the composer’s best late-period opera scores. Many fine Straussian sopranos have coveted the role of Arabella, and several have actually recorded it, making the competition, even on video, quite fierce.

The production seen here is from the Vienna State Opera filmed in high definition Blu-ray in June of last year. Stage Director Sven-Eric Bechtole has updated the original picturesque 1860s era Viennese settings to that of Strauss’s own era in the early 20th century with little or no loss of romantic effect. Sets and costumes are quite handsomely appointed and quite traditional, as Vienna audiences seem to prefer, although the hotel drawing room furniture in act I looks suspiciously like generic hotel furniture. The presence of the father’s bed in the middle of the drawing room is one of only a very few directorial missteps, no classy hotel of the period would have placed it there and no aristocrat, as the father is, would tolerate it. It allows for some additional stage business, but detracts from the image of the family as poor, but of the highest breeding. Act II is the Strauss/Hofmannsthal take on a party scene in the style of Die Fledermaus, La bohème, or La Rondine. It does not seem to come off quite as well as those earlier models, the gaity seems a bit forced as troubling plot complications arise. Strauss even tacks on a coloratura showpiece by party mascot Fiakermilli (who otherwise does not appear), surely one of the most difficult (and possibly unnecessary) florid arias in all of opera.

The Arabella du jour here is American soprano Emily Magee, who has spent much of her operatic career in European houses, particularly the Zurich Opera House working with musical director Franz Welser-Möst, the guest conductor on this set. Magee is something of a Strauss specialist, but she is now a bit mature for the role of the young Viennese debutante and her singing, while certainly enjoyable enough, never provides the vocal riches of a Lisa Della Casa, Renée Fleming, or Kiri Te Kanawa, all top past and present proponents of the role. Fleming and Te Kanawa in fact, both appear on competing DVDs. The rest of the cast is comprised of Vienna State Opera regulars, led by the fine bass-baritone of Polish born Tomasz Konieczny as Arabella’s rich Croatian suitor Mandryka, and Austrian soprano Genia Kuhmeier as Zdenka, Arabella’s sister pretending to be a boy (because the family is too poor to bring out two debutantes). Kuhmeier excels in the pseudo-pants role and sings well in the bargain. Canadian tenor Michael Schade brings a competent voice but a bit too much intensity to the role of the lovesick young lieutenant, Matteo. Schade seems more likely to go off in a psychotic rage than to be contemplating suicide over unrequited love. The smaller roles, Arabella’s mom and pop, and her trio of aristocratic suitors are also filled with solid singers by the Viennese house. Special mention must go to songbird soprano Daniela Fally’s jaw-dropping performance of Fiakermilli’s pyrotechnic aria. The Vienna State Opera Orchestra is nearly matchless in the Strauss repertoire and led here quite delightfully by Welser-Möst, a fine Straussian in his own right.

My few reservations aside, this set is a fine representation of the opera that will provide viewers much enjoyment, and with its Hi-Def video and exceptional surround sound, it must rank near the top competitively. Arguably today’s top Strauss soprano, Renée Fleming, provides a superior performance, again with Welser-Möst from Zurich, but she is let down by the wayward Zurich staging and a cast of lesser-lights singing around her. Georg Solti’s 1977 set with Gundula Janowitz is technically showing its age, but Janowitz provides another excellent Arabella and Solti drives the Vienna Philharmonic forces in truly exciting fashion. The Met video, under conductor Christian Thielemann, is very strong musically but Te Kanawa, for all her singing prowess, is sometimes a wooden actress, she is not in the same league as Fleming or Magee in portraying the many nuances of the lead role. Listen to Te Kanawa on CD along with Della Casa, still perhaps the best singing Arabella of all time. Recommended.

FANFARE: Bill White   
Reviewing DVD version

This C Major DVD/Blu-ray disc features rising star conductor Andris Nelsons leading the RCO in a program of popular Richard Strauss’ orchestral works. + Andris Nelsons is one of today’s most sought-after young conductors, having worked with the world’s most important orchestras including the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Royal Concertgebouw and Philharmonia Orchestras. + He is a regular guest at Covent Garden, the MET, Wiener and Deutsche Staatsoper and at Bayreuth. + Beginning with the 2014-15 concert season, Mr. Nelsons assumes the role and duties of M.D. of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.