Set in the town of Chalons near the German border at the time of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror in 1794, Johann Strauss II’s final operetta The Goddess of Reason languished for 111 years until this 2009 in-concert revival. Its light-hearted mockery of the aristocracy, morality and the army, somewhat controversial at the time, seems as harmless now as that of Bernstein’s ebullient opera Candide and its humour stands the test of time. Abounding in waltz tunes and marches, its exuberant music is vintage Strauss. For this recording Christian Pollack has reconstructed the score as it would have been heard on its opening night with additional items that Strauss added for its 25th performance.

The premier of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Weiner Blut came mere months after the composer’s death, and precipitated a tragedy in itself by bankrupting the theater manager, leading to his suicide. In its revised version, it been a steady repertoire presence for nearly a century. Set at the time of the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), the work follows a traditional operetta plot full of mistaken identities. The music, which includes the Blue Danube Waltz, is sublime. This production, from the 2007 Seefestspiele Moerbisch Austria Festival, stars Harald Serafin, Rainer Trost and Noëmi Nadelmann.

Hovhaness' admirers often tend to overlook the piano works in favour of his big orchestral statements. Nevertheless there's much to enjoy in these compact pieces which are here drawn from a wide time frame, spanning Op.36 to Op.390. The Twelve Armenian Folk Songs were composed around 1943 but not published until two decades later. The melodies are attractive in themselves but, more than that, they are most attractively played by Alessandra Pompili who shows a very strong affinity with all the music in this 52-minute disc. She plays the 'unfamiliar melodies' - in the composer's words - with simplicity and a real degree of affection in an acoustic that tends to the dry, though on balance I'd rather that than a billowing sound in these pieces.

Ghazal and Ghazal-Sufi date from 1938 and here the bass line underlies a weaving lyric right hand melody line. The former, which is the longer, has a tolling, melancholy-sounding motif whilst the latter is the more rarefied in expression. This is, it would seem the first ever recording of both pieces. Composed in 1959 whilst Hovhaness was in the Kashmir, Shalimar reflects his huge enthusiasm for Indian music. Formally, he introduced the idea of borders in this suite in an attempt to suggest the carpet-like designs of Moghul gardens. As much as rhythm drives this music, there is a huge amount of nature painting involved, the composer evoking the now-silent fountains through the memory of their music. Much is coolly flowing, beautifully expressive and often hypnotically rhythmic but there is also the Bachian element of the Third Interlude. Helpfully each incident - there are eight in all - is separately tracked.

The 'Cougar Mountain' Sonata, Op.390 dates from 1985 and returns to his love of nature - of vistas and expanse. As well as a slow opening movement there is a lament, a slumber song and, as finale, a dance. There are hints of Ravel in the early part of the sonata and the stomping dance with which the sonata ends certainly generates considerable dynamism. Its compact nature still allows a rich sense of characterization to emerge. The Fantasy, Op.15 - again this is a first recording - was written in 1938 but was later re-worked and absorbed into the Blue Job Mountain Sonata, Op.340. It's an unusually alternating work for Hovhaness, in which lyricism and percussiveness sit on opposite sides of the equation. Finally there is Dark River and Distant Bell which, with its oriental mood, was originally intended for harpsichord or clavichord. This is its first appearance on disc in piano guise.

Pompili, then, is a splendid young exponent of Hovhaness' music. That dry sound does help to clarify and centralize the piano writing without sounding off-puttingly objectified. Liner notes are in Italian and English and worth a detour, as indeed is this disarmingly well-played disc.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

The way Richard Strauss spoke of his “beloved Dresdeners” rang of Bavarian humor blended with a subtle touch of mischievous irony and, first and foremost, a good dose of respect and appreciation. Home to the Königliche musikalische Kapelle (“Royal Musical Ensemble”) and the Court Opera, Dresden soon became a center of Strauss’s music; many of his works were given their premiere there. Ernst von Schuch, Strauss’s “most loyal conductor of choice”, was a key figure: at the symphony concerts given by the Kapelle, the Dresden General Music Director soon acquainted audiences with all of Strauss’s tone poems, from Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche through Also sprach Zarathustra to Sinfonia domestica. Strauss enthused that, years later, it was “the brilliant Schuch’s untiring magic wand” that eventually opened the series of “exemplary premieres” of his operas in Dresden. Works including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier made Strauss the leading musical dramatist of his time. He had no fewer than nine operas premiered in Dresden, his “Eldorado for premieres”, and dedicated the Alpine Symphony to the Dresden Kapelle as a token of his gratitude. The present release is the 44th volume in the Staatskapelle Dresden’s exploration of Strauss’s work, and includes, most notably, his Konzert fur Horn und Orchester op. 11.

This representative cross-section of the most beautiful and famous waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss II in recordings made between 1950 and 1952, issued here for the first time, shows Fricsay's unique talent for natural and seemingly improvisatory music-making.

Classical Music

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 2 (arr. Payne). J. STRAUSS II Wein, Weib und Gesang (arr. Berg) • Trevor Pinnock, cond; Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ens • LINN 442 (SACD: 65: 39)


A Bruckner symphony arranged for chamber orchestra? That really shouldn’t work—but it does, and it’s a spectacular success. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, principal of the Royal Academy of Music, is the brains behind the project, and top honors go to him for his astute choice of symphony and even more astute choice of arranger, the composer Anthony Payne. Add to that the arrangement itself, which is a triumph of clarity and timbral focus, an interpretation from Trevor Pinnock, who proves to be an insightful Brucknerian (who knew?), orchestral playing from students who need fear no comparisons with the finest professionals, and exceptional SACD audio, and the result is an unqualified success on every count.


The release is the second in a series called Reigniting Schoenberg’s Vision . The idea is to recreate—or even reinvent—Schoenberg’s famous Society for Private Musical Performances, performing some of the chamber arrangements of symphonic works made for those events, and even, as in this case, correcting Schoenberg’s omissions by adding to the repertoire. Bruckner’s Second “Symphonie” (as it’s referred to throughout the accompanying literature, a curious affectation) is a daring but smart choice. While it is not particularly small of stature, its identity, character, and charm emanate more from its quieter passages than from its climaxes. Payne follows the spirit more than the letter of the Schoenberg/Berg/Stein arrangements, using a 20-piece ensemble, larger than in any of the Vienna reworkings, but substituting the full orchestra in similar ways, particularly in the use of piano and harmonium to provide essential, although usually invisible, support.


Some of the climaxes feel underpowered, but even here the pros of the arrangement outweigh the cons. We hear the stratospheric violin lines, the chugging bass figures, and the brass fanfares with a rare clarity. But it is in the quieter passages that this version really comes into its own. At the start, for example, the theme is given to the cellos. Here, we hear it as a cello solo, elegantly phrased and all the more beautiful for the sense of intimacy a single player can bring. In later passages, the bassoon writing is a particular revelation, and just as beautifully played. The opening of the Andante second movement, pared down to string sextet, is transporting in a way that only the very finest recordings of the full symphony manage. Some of the scherzo sounds a little hollow, but Pinnock and his small brass section ensure the momentum is maintained through finely calibrated accentuation. And in the finale, an appropriate gravitas is achieved, even in the absence of weight.


Trevor Pinnock brings many of the preoccupations of the period instrument movement to bear on the work, yet it never sounds dry. Details of phrasing and accentuation are addressed in every bar, and the smaller ensemble allows him to shape and color accompanying textures with as much care as the main themes. His tempos are propulsive, but never rigid, nor excessively fast. He seems to be in a quandary over the caesuras. The tutti cut-offs don’t need the time to decay, but the severity of the mood changes often require a pause for reflection, which he always gives.


The instrumentalists perform to an exceptionally high standard throughout. The playing of the string sextet is particularly impressive, highly expressive but finely controlled and balanced. So too the woodwind soloists, blending their tone in ensemble but taking full advantage of the increased exposure in solos to play with character and color. To all the other accolades for Jonathan Freeman-Attwood we must also add recording producer, another field in which he excels. The recording was made at St. George’s Bristol, and the sound is warm, but never excessively resonant. The clarity that Payne achieves in his arrangement is amplified at every step by the quality of the recorded sound.


If I’ve one grumble, it’s with the coupling, Alban Berg’s arrangement of Wine, Women, and Song . It follows hard on the heels of the Bruckner without any gap at all (not even time to jump up and switch it off) and it adds little. In comparison to Payne’s detailed and clear textures in the Bruckner, Berg’s arrangement feels bloated and unfocused. Berg had a different acoustic in mind of course, and a different setting in every sense. Presumably this arrangement is included to highlight the link with the Society for Private Musical Performances, but it’s unnecessary. Whatever inspiration Freeman-Attwood, Payne, and the RAM musicians have drawn from Schoenberg is of only historical interest as far as this recording is concerned: The project needs no further justification than the exceptional quality of the results.


FANFARE: Gavin Dixon

The Places - Vienna was already an ancient Celtic town called Vindobona when around 15 BC the Romans fortified it with a military camp. The town prospered and grew, undergoing considerable further development under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died there in AD 180. In later times Vienna assumed the greatest importance as the capital of the Habsburg Empire and as a bulwark defending Western Europe from invasion from the East, although it failed to repel Napoleon, who occupied the city twice in the first decade of the 19th century. The Music; the eldest son of Johann Strauss I, the younger Johann Strauss was born in 1825, the year in which his father established his popular dance orchestra. The father intended other professions for his sons, but in 1844, two years after his father had abandoned his wife in favor of his mistress, the younger Strauss set up his own orchestra, an enterprise in which he later compelled his younger brothers, Joseph and Eduard, to share. In 1863 Strauss was appointed Imperial Music Director for the balls held at court, a position he held until 1871, when he was succeeded by his brother Eduard. He then began writing a series of operettas, including in 1874 the best known of all, Die Fledermaus. He died in 1899 after a busy and successful career, having composed some five hundred pieces of music; Waltzes, Polkas, Marches, Quadrilles and Stage works.

On her second PENTATONE album Sinnbild, soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller presents an enchanting collection of orchestral songs by Richard Strauss, together with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Culminating in the famous Four Last Songs, the program explores all forms of farewell – the big and the small – that we go through as human beings. Amidst this melancholia, Strauss’s lush, glorious orchestral writing and his exceptional understanding of the soprano voice offer profound solace to the listener.

Hanna-Elisabeth Müller is among the most celebrated lyrical sopranos of our times. Sinnbild is the second album as part of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE. The WDR Symphony Orchestra has released several albums with the label, including Beethoven’s complete symphonies (2020) and Hindemith orchestral works (2018), both with Marek Janowski, as well as the Strauss album Aber der richtige… (2018) with Arabella Steinbacher and Lawrence Foster. Christoph Eschenbach is universally acclaimed as conductor and pianist, and makes his PENTATONE debut.

SOMM Recordings announces a major addition to the Richard Strauss catalogue with new recordings of his settings of two era-defining melodramas: the epic poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, England’s revered and longest-serving Poet Laureate, and German poet Ludwig Uhland’s atmospheric interrogation of a traveler returning from a mysterious mediaeval fortress, The Castle by the Sea. Making their SOMM Recordings debuts are actor Christopher Kent and pianist Gamal Khamis. Both works were composed for the distinguished German actor and director, Ernst von Possart. A powerful, potent and timeless tale of honor, love and sacrifice within a love triangle, Enoch Arden is one of Strauss’s most evocative and emotional scores. The Castle by the Sea – here in its first recording of Christopher Kent’s translation – is a miniature gothic masterpiece. Christopher Kent has appeared widely on stage (alongside Robert Lindsay and Timothy Spall), screen and radio. One of the UK’s best-known voice actors, he is also known for his extensive collaborations with leading musicians, and has been a regular recital partner of Gamal Khamis since 2016.Gamal Khamis is a multi-award-winning pianist with a flourishing international career hailed by The Times for his “formidable keyboard skills”. He made his Wigmore Hall debut aged 10, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3, and a member of Lipatti Piano Quartet. The booklet includes an authoritative introduction by Andrew Neill, with Christopher Kent and Gamal Khamis providing additional illuminating commentary.

For his fifth recording with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Robin Ticciati conducts a captivating programme of Richard Strauss including Tod und Verklärung and Don Juan. The scandalous story of the insatiable Don Juan forms the inspiration for a tone poem which is rich in imagination and dramatic flourishes. Tod und Verklärungis further testament to Strauss's vivid imagination; his exploration of the mystery of death and what may follow was written when he was only twenty-five. Ticciati is a consummate Straussian, as his triumphant Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne demonstrated, and his complete control of phrase shape and dynamics delivers performances of tremendous power and lucidity. Soprano Louise Alder joins Ticciati and the DSO to record what she describes as 'a fiendish but beloved cycle of Strauss songs': Sechs Lieder, Op. 68, affectionately known as the Brentano Lieder. The recording is released to coincide with Ticciati's fourth season as Music Director of the DSO.

KARITA MATTILA - KAIPAINEN, ME

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 27

At the end of Johann Strauss' 1874 opereta Die Fledermaus, all of the characters drink a toast to the real culprit of the story - 'Champagner hat's verschuldet' - a fitting conclusion to this most renowned and potent evocation of the carefree life of post-revolution imperial Vienna. Strauss' sparkling score (never mind that the liberetto is an amalgam of German and French sources), infused with that most famous of Viennese dances, the waltz, lent eloquent expression to the transitory atmosphere of confidence and prosperity induced by the Hapsburg monarchs. 'The Emperor Franz Joseph I,' it would later be said 'only reigned until the death of Johann Strauss.' And what could have provided more perfect source material than the music of Strauss, for the pastiche creations of the illustrious composer-pianists who roamed the world on the later 19th and early 20th centuries, forever seeking vehicles with which to exploit the possibilities of their instument and display their pianistic powers? - Thomas Labé