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.

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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.

Richard Strauss: Salome, Op. 54, TrV 215 (Live)

Richard Strauss' solo piano music dates from his teen years. Although the style often is derivative (warmed-over Mendelssohn, Weber, and Schumann) you can't deny the budding composer's assured, fluent, and utterly professional technique, along with his vibrant musicality and idiomatic keyboard grasp. You rarely encounter these works in concert, yet they're surprisingly well served on disc. Three diversely excellent "complete" cycles from Oleg Marshev (Danacord), Frank Braley (Harmonia Mundi), and Stefan Vladar (Koch Schwann) bear this out, not to mention Glenn Gould's recordings of the Op. 3 pieces and the B minor sonata. Naxos' Stefan Veselka acquits himself very well in such company. For example, his rounded phrasing and plush sonorities in the Op. 3 and Op. 9 cycles contrast to Braley's leaner, more transparent profile (you might say that Veselka is Arrau to Braley's Richter). He matches the robust qualities of Vladar's Sonata with added propulsion in the outer movements and bests Marshev's Scherzo movement for scintillation and suppleness. What's more, Naxos' modest price and fine sonics make this attractive release all the more recommendable.--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

OehmsClassics acknowledges the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss with this release highlighting music for horn from Richard Strauss and his father._x000D_ Franz Joseph Strauss, although far outshown by his prodigy Richard in posthumous fame was one of the best hornists of his time._x000D_ Also included on this release is Hasenöhrl's (1885–1970) cheekily-named Till Eulenspiegel – Differently This Time, Op. 28._x000D_ Hornist Xiaoming Han is currently principal Horn of the German Radio Philharmonic.

An excellent Metamorphosen and a disc well worth the purchasing.

This disc is a follow-up to the same team’s superb performance of Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie . I considered that disc to be possibly the single finest achievement in Naxos’s considerable crown - a performance both epic and humane aided by a superb recording and a magnificent orchestra steeped in Straussian tradition. So it was with considerable expectation that I listened to this performance of the Symphonia domestica. Strauss’s two big programme symphonies are the pieces most often dragged out by his detractors as the ultimate examples of his over-weening ego and penchant for excess. Certainly they are scored for huge orchestras and last over three quarters of an hour. The thing that jars for many people - particularly in the case of Symphonia Domestica - is the public flaunting of private, even intimate, details - some considering the passionate love music of the adagio voyeuristic and tasteless. I have always felt this is to miss the point - Strauss was a virtuoso of the orchestra in the way others are of the violin. Clearly he delighted in being able to bend it and the rules of form and composition to fit whatever musical plan he had in mind. I feel we as listeners should focus more on the Symphonia element and less on the Domestica. After all, we are quite happy to listen to the extended unconsummated passion of Tristan and Isolde which we accept because it is a story but reject the Strauss because it is considered reportage. This is all a red herring we have been thrown. If we knew nothing of the “programme” behind this piece we would be little worse off. This piece works symphonically better than many other works so labelled. It is down to Strauss’s brilliance that he creates a series of inter-related themes thereby showing a family relationship. These is then able to treat both dramatically and musically in a coherent manner which is logical to both creative strands. As I say, a virtuoso showing off! I absolutely adore this piece. For its unbridled passion and vigour and thrilling orchestration it has few equals; not all great music has to be profound.

So to the current performance, Many of the virtues that graced the earlier disc remain. The Weimar Staatskapelle is a magnificent orchestra. They have a rich burnished tone building on a resonant dark-hued bottom end that is ideal for this style of music. All solos are taken with great style and musicality. To my ear they combine the best of the warmth of the Berlin Philharmonic with the tonal personality of the Dresden Staatskapelle; this is an orchestra I would love to hear perform live. Wit’s approach to the work is essentially similar to that of the Alpine Symphony. He eschews passing drama in favour of a longer more epic stance. This paid dividends in the earlier recording - there was a cumulative power to his interpretation that felt absolutely right. Part of the explanation for that could be that that piece, in following one day in the mountains, could be seen as a metaphor for the traversal of life from birth to death. Symphonia domestica is about a single day and the hustle and bustle that is part of it. Hence there does need to be an urgency about much of the writing. Timings alone are never a good way to judge a performance but Wit, at nearly forty-seven minutes in length, is by some measure the slowest performance I have compared. Szell blazes his way through in just over forty-one - technically stunning - but a rather regimented household one can’t help but feel! Even that most affectionate of Straussians, Kempe, is a good couple of minutes faster.

Everything starts well with the character of the orchestra both corporately and individually immediately apparent. I see that this performance was recorded about two years after the earlier one - the Metamorphosen actually dates from the same group of sessions as the Alpine Symphony - with a different engineer. He has not quite caught the inner detail with such a miraculous combination of detail and beauty as his colleague. It is from the central portion of the symphony that the performance as a whole begins to lose its way. Somehow the music seems to become becalmed. This is in part due to the loss of some of the inner detail. The contrapuntal writing in this work is remarkable even by Strauss’s standards so that even when the tempo slows there is an inner energy driving the music forward. This piece was for me one of Järvi’s greater successes in his Chandos cycle. This was due in no small part to the engineers managing to delineate the numerous lines in the musical texture. The extended love-scene lies at the heart of the work and to succeed it does need to overwhelm the listener with a series of climaxes that sweep away reserve and reservations. Sadly, in this, Wit does not succeed - it is beautiful where I want passion and considered where I want wildness. The symphony’s final section with its curious double fugue - the use of such an intellectually rigorous form after the abandon of what has gone before has always mystified me - is in many ways the piece’s weakest element and works best when played with unbuttoned good humour. It features some of the most remarkable horn writing that even Strauss produced which whilst it does register here does not overwhelm as I wish it would; once again Järvi and his SNO horns have a field day here. So I would have to say a worthy performance and an ongoing delight to hear this orchestra but not the automatic first choice I had rather hoped it would be.

Metamorphosen is a very substantial filler. The key to the approach here - and I’m sure that Wit is absolutely correct - is that this is a piece for 23 solo strings. Hence it is in effect a piece of large-scale chamber music. Other performances such as those by Karajan and his Berlin players produce a wall of tone that is remarkable - to the point you wonder how 23 players can produce that much sound - but in doing so the personal nature, the individual character of the loss that is being mourned vanishes. There is a lean quality to the Weimar sound that allows each line to be clearly followed and this reinforces the genius of the contrapuntal writing. It is a sombre performance as befits a piece written as a musical oration for a lost city and culture. Wit again directs a performance that sits at the slower end of a range of timings. Interestingly no performance I have heard clocks in at the 30 minutes indicated in the score. Of those I possess Zinman is slowest at 28:57 with Wit second at 28:16. The broad lamenting approach pays dividends here. Also the recording is splendid, beautifully balanced across the sonic range but with a richness to the bass lines that lets this extraordinary music sit on an harmonic bedrock above which the multitudinous polyphonic lines swoop and intertwine. The hardest element of this work is sustaining the single arc from gentle opening through contorted climax to desolate resolution. Wit’s pacing is excellent; never once do you feel he has allowed the music to peak too soon or conversely to sag. Listen at the very end when finally the Eroica motif in the basses appears unadorned how the accompanying upper strings blanch away their tone and vibrato to produce a final descent into oblivion. Quite superb. There is a sustained intensity to the music-making here that belies it being “just another session”. Clearly the creative fires were burning brightly in Weimar in July 2005! Metamorphosen has been fortunate in receiving many fine performances so I think it quite impossible to single out one as being first amongst equals. However, to my ear this new version is worthy of being considered up there with the very best. Listening several times to both performances on this disc I have no doubt that the earlier engineering of the string work is finer than that accorded the symphony although the latter is by no means poor.

Worth mentioning at this point Keith Anderson’s typically fine liner-note which explains with concision and clarity the genesis of both works. He points out, among many interesting facts, that Metamorphosen was composed in less than one month first note to last (13 ^th March - 12 ^th April 1945) - an astonishing burst of creativity for any composer producing a work of such complexity let alone one some 77 years old.

All in all another powerful disc of Strauss from Wit and his Weimar orchestra. For a Domestica of sheer delight I would turn elsewhere but an excellent Metamorphosen is more than compensation and at the price a Naxos disc well worth the purchasing.

-- Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

R. STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite. Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. 4 Last Songs • Mariss Jansons, cond; Anja Harteros (sop); Bavarian RSO • BR 900707 (63:33)


In the program notes, Mariss Jansons is quoted as saying in reference to Richard Strauss that “His music has accompanied me all my life and still stirs me very deeply.” Despite that, his interpretations are curiously understated. The Rosenkavalier Suite is beautifully, almost reverentially played, but is surprisingly subdued. The explosive opening and buildup to Octavian’s grand entry in act II lack passion, exhilaration, and breathless anticipation. Jansons’ pacing is consistently slow to the point where the “Presentation of the Rose” sequence almost loses momentum. The same is true of the waltzes. They sound lovely, but all of this lyrical and slow music tends to drag and lack dynamic contrast, especially in this suite (as opposed to Antál Doráti’s version with its well-positioned and more extensive inclusion of the comical music that opens act III). The Trio is gorgeous at the by now expected very slow speed (how can it not be?). The temptation to linger over this sublime music must be nearly irresistible. However, this Marschallin, Octavian, and Sophie sound like they are on Valium.


Till Eulenspiegel is similarly relaxed, slow, and finely nuanced. The overall effect is light and balletic (not a bad thing). Jansons’s Till is a very lighthearted prankster. In this case, ample contrast is provided by some incisive and powerful bass drum thwacks. It is a pleasure to hear the flawless horn and woodwind soloists in this incredibly refined orchestra.


If you are sympathetic toward the Jansons/Anja Harteros interpretation of the Four Last Songs , this will be for you because they do it really well. Harteros is unfailingly pitch-perfect and her approach is almost operatic. Jansons’ tempos are middle of the road, but the general impression is that they are swifter. In contrast to Der Rosenkavalier , he doesn’t linger here. The execution of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is truly amazing throughout this recording. I can’t remember hearing Strauss’s remarkable orchestration being presented with this degree of clarity that sounds more cool and transparent than dense and lush.


The sound is solid without ever being overtly flashy. Audiophiles may complain that this is the wrong way to record Strauss, but the engineering does successfully complement the laid-back performances. There is a good compromise between realistic orchestral balance and fine instrumental detail. Harteros is miked very closely and appears to be in a brighter acoustic setting than the orchestra.


These performances will appeal to anyone who wants immaculate and well-controlled orchestral and vocal execution. Clearly, this is not an interpretive approach to Strauss that will appeal to everyone. It works best in the Four Last Songs , which are indeed very special. Even though the Rosenkavalier Suite sounds a little cool and sedate, you still get the opportunity to hear Harteros and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra work their magic in music that is clearly in their blood.


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen

This exceptional programme of highlights from Richard Strauss´s works Der Rosenkavalier, Feuersnot, Salome, Elektra, Die ägyptische Helena, Arabella, Die schweigsame Frau and Daphne was dedicated to Richard Strauss 150th birthday in Dresden. The reputation as »THE Strauss-Orchestra« of the Staatskapelle Dresden results from the special relation to Richard Strauss and his works, which started 130 years ago, performing many world premieres of Richard Strauss´s operas and orchestral works.

The DVD includes the documentary My Strauss with Christian Thielemann, including a lot of archival footage with Richard Strauss, rehearsals and concert excerpts of Elektra, Rosenkavalier, Frau ohne Schatten, Heldenleben, Four last songs and more.
RICHARD STRAUSS GALA

Gala Concert featuring highlights of these operas by Richard Strauss:

Der Rosenkavalier
Elektra
Feuersnot
Salome
Arabella
Intermezzo
Die Ägyptische Helena
Die schweigsame Frau
Daphne

Christine Goerke, soprano
Anja Harteros, soprano
Camilla Nylund, soprano

Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

MY STRAUSS
A documentary by Andreas Morell

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Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 101 mins (concert) + 45 mins (documentary)
No. of DVDs: 2 (x1 DVD 5 + x1 DVD 9)

Classical Music

Heinz Wallberg's intimate familiarity with the work (he conducted it on almost fifty separate occasions) can be heard throughout this 1961 performance of Richard Strauss' operatic masterpiece Der Rosenkavalier. Captured live at the Teatro Col�n, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961 with a stellar cast that included Regine Crespin and Fritz Wunderlich, among other Straussian notables, and offered here in 24bit/96kHz re-mastered sound, this is a recording to be set alongside those of Clemens Krauss, Karl B�hm and Herbert von Karajan, all famed and important 20th c. Strauss interpreters.

Richard Strauss’ rarely recorded one act opera Daphne is based loosely on the eponymously named character from Ovid's Metamorphoses and was dedicated by Strauss to the conductor Karl Böhm. Considered legendary by many, this 1944 recording is finally re-issued featuring Böhm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic with singers Herbert Alsen, Maria Reining, Anton Dermota, Karl Friedrich during a time in history arguably not conducive for opera productions and all the more stirring for having occurred.

Also available on Blu-ray

RICHARD STRAUSS – At the End of the Rainbow

A documentary by Eric Schulz

This documentary shows a new perspective on the personality and oeuvre of Richard Strauss, who saw himself as the last great composer at the end of an era, “at the end of the rainbow.” This carefully researched production presents spectacular hitherto unreleased pictures of Richard Strauss. Among others: a live recording of the premiere of the “Olympic Anthem” at the Berlin Olympic stadium in 1936. The very first performance of this piece ever to be heard, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and a choir of 1000 singers conducted by Richard Strauss himself. These spectacular rare pictures are embedded in interviews with relatives, famous musicians and Strauss experts, such as Christian Strauss, Stefan Mickisch, and Brigitte Fassbaender. Director Eric Schulz is an acclaimed documentary film maker whos first two films, Carlos Kleiber Traces to Nowhere and Herbert von Karajan - The Second Life both attracted worldwide attention and were rewarded with various prizes, including the ECHO Klassik and the Gramophone Award.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Audio Language: German
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Chinese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 97 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

The performance of summer 2015 was again a huge success for the festival!

United States Marine Band: Music of Richard Strauss