SYMPHONIA DOMESTICA SACD

R. STRAUSS Don Quixote. 1 Romance. 1 Cello Sonata in F 1,2 • Fabio Luisi, cond; Jan Vogler (vc); 1 Louis Lortie (pn); 2 Staatskapelle Dresden • SONY (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 73:45)


This Sony SACD is very significant in that it is a newly recorded hybrid multichannel SACD from the company that initially presented the technology to audiophiles and CD consumers and then essentially abandoned it when they failed to release any new SACDs. Whether or not it signifies a new commitment to SACDs remains to be seen. On a more musical note, it is always rewarding to hear the music of Richard Strauss played by the Staatskapelle Dresden, but in the same context, some may ask who Fabio Luisi is. Well, he is the music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and perhaps a rising star among today’s young conductors. How he fits into the orchestra’s longstanding tradition and expertise in Strauss’s music also remains to be seen.


Luisi plays Don Quixote like a richly orchestrated piece of chamber music. Given the classical influences on Strauss’s set of “Fantastic Variations,” this is certainly appropriate. Luisi’s reading has much of the textural clarity of Reiner, but he adds a light, lyrical flow (similar to Bernard Haitink’s Philips recording, also available now on Eloquence) that is quite ravishing in the “Dialogue of the Knight and Squire” and the “Death of Don Quixote.” Luisi does capture the grand sweep of the “Ride through the Air,” but some will probably find his interpretation to be too underplayed. The emphasis is on Classical transparency rather than Romantic excess. The Staatskapelle Dresden sounds remarkable, and the soloists take the same slightly understated approach as Luisi does. They seamlessly blend with the orchestra in concertante fashion. The Romance for cello and orchestra sounds gorgeous, and is played in the same subdued manner, but is recorded at a higher level. The Sonata for Cello and Piano is lovely.


This is probably the best sounding Don Quixote out there. Fine inner detail (critically important for Strauss’s delicate orchestration) and focal instrumental imaging are outstanding, but not at the cost of sacrificing natural ambient information (hall sound). This is a fine example of how to give the solo instrumentalists their due without distorting orchestral balances as a whole. Critics of the sound may complain that the laid-back effect is an artifact of SACD technology. In this case, I prefer to think that it is a conscious choice of the engineer. So, this is a beautifully recorded but fairly low key Don Quixote . I am not ready to call Luisi a great Strauss conductor yet (the final result is greatly aided by the orchestra and the sound), but this is certainly a good start.


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Every Strauss lover needs a recording of this ballet, composed just before (or during) An Alpine Symphony, for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris. The work has suffered from Strauss’ professed lack of interest in the title character, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t work hard to create a successful piece. I mean, who deliberately wants to fail at a Paris premiere by the Ballets Russes? The notion that Strauss just couldn’t handle it because of his own comments about the subject hold no water, at least for me. He was a great composer, and more than that, a consummate professional, and he did his best.

This doesn’t meant that Josephslegende is his best work. The problem it has, and that Strauss had difficulty solving, is musical. Because it’s a ballet, he was forced to impose on his natural polyphonic fluidity a certain rigidity of rhythm, generally in the form of those typical ballet-type percussion ostinatos for the tambourine and its friends, that almost all ballets feature in one form or another. The result can weigh the music down, so what it needs is just what Järvi and company offer here: a reading of exceptional liveliness, lasting under an hour. There are no dead spots, and the climaxes are really exciting as belted out by the Scottish National players. We can also really hear how the music foreshadows the Strauss to come in Die Frau ohne Schatten, especially the “magic” music in the opera involving the character of the Nurse. The work has been gaining some ground lately; who wouldn’t want what is effectively another big Strauss tone poem? Even with fine versions by Sinopoli (DG) and Fischer (Channel Classics), this stands out as perhaps the most vivid of all.

We also get couplings. The early Festmarsch, Op. 1 is both festive and march-like, which is all that need be said about it. The Love Scene from Feuersnot, however, is another story, a gem of an extract from another unjustly neglected mature score. It really ought to be called a “sex scene” rather than a “love scene” for reasons that become completely obvious once you hear it. This literal climax also includes references to The Ride of the Valkyries in the brass which only serve to make Strauss’ intent even more graphic, as well as funny (in case you didn’t know, the opera is a comedy). He must have had a huge laugh over this bit, and you will too.

Excellent sonics in all formats make this a treat for Straussians and the curious, both.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Releases like this show why Arkivmusic.com's "on demand" program is so important to collectors. These aren't Strauss' greatest works, but they are comparative rarities on disc. Serious Strauss collectors will want them to fill the gaps in their collections. The performances are very beautiful, brilliantly played, and excellently paced. Mehta always has been an excellent Straussian, and in 1990 was in top form. There never would be a big market for this release, even by classical music standards, but that doesn't mean that the music should not be available to those who love Strauss' orchestral works, or little-known Romantic gems. So here it is; come and get it!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite, Le bourgeois gentilhomm

R. STRAUSS: ALSO SPRACH ZARATH

THE ROYAL EDITION - R. STRAUSS

Serkin is ursine and magisterial in his approach, but with a feline agility in the quicker music that surprises.

This version of Brahms 2 disc has been around for at least a decade and music-lovers (the fortunate ones of longer standing) will know of it from many previous versions on LP, cassette and even CD. This has been something of a nostalgic journey for me. I bought a bargain box CBS LP set of the Serkin Brahms concertos back in 1971. Their attractions have not dwindled in the intervening years and the Brahms 2 is quite simply terrific.

Serkin is ursine and magisterial in his approach. However he has a feline agility in the quicker music that surprises in one who so naturally expresses the epic. This dichotomy is best displayed in the Second Concerto which recording must assuredly be counted among the greats. This is an unconditional must-have for those who can live with the original CBS sound. OK so it is a mite grainy and just slightly unfocused. Szell's Clevelanders have plenty of bite and a gravelly determination that is deeply impressive.

Throughout the Cleveland strings are searching though not as lustrous as they could be. The layers of texture are merged more closely in a sound signature that is peculiarly American and for which the CBS engineers presumably strove. The weighty string sound is homogeneous and edge-of-seat alert with probing emotionalism.

The Strauss Burleske is a felicitous apt companion to the Brahms Second and follows on - very much in keeping with the joyous spirit of the Brahms finale.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Includes polka(s) by Johann Strauss Jr.. Ensemble: Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Eugene Ormandy.
Includes waltz(es) by Johann Strauss Jr.. Ensemble: Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Eugene Ormandy.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Metamorphosen seems to be much in favour with conductors at present. It is small wonder since not only is it a great and moving work, but it is a wonderful vehicle for demonstrating the excellence of a string ensemble. Strauss may only have specified 23 solo strings, but he wrote for them with such richness and complexity that they always sound at least twice that number if they are any good at all. And the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra are extremely good... The work is wonderfully played here with a rich and warm recording to enhance the performance...[and] there are many lovely insights... If Salonen is perhaps a surprising Straussian, he is clearly a perceptive one. The Duet-Concertino was Strauss's last instrumental work involving soloists, and a charmer it is, too, even if slight and reminiscent. If we have heard most of its beguiling themes in other guises—as Daphne (in the opera of that name), for example there are few composers who repeat themselves so divertingly, variously and imaginatively. These ruminations on things past are beautifully played by the clarinettist Paul Meyer and the bassoonist Knut Sonstevold, both with the appropriate mellow tone, and Salonen here strikes the right interpretative stance, combining affection with a high regard for the craftsmanship that flowed as easily as melody from Strauss's pen.

The prelude to Capriccio is, of course, a string sextet, supposedly written by the composer Flamand in the opera in honour of the beautiful widowed Countess's birthday. But the temptation to transcribe it for full string orchestra must be hard to resist and Salonen has done the job well. If I prefer it in its original form, that is because I think it is essentially a piece of chamber music and, like Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, loses something when it is inflated. On the other hand it gains in richness, and in any case it is such a beautiful piece of music that it seems only fair that it should be placed within the grasp of symphony orchestras looking for something different with which to open their programmes. So they should be grateful to Salonen.

-- Gramophone [10/1989]

STRAUSS: SINFONIA DOMESTICA, B

Vintage supercharged Bernstein with the New York PO on starry form. Just on the right side of self-indulgence, this is a compelling old-world view of Strauss – heroic, intimate and headily nostalgic. The pacing, climaxing and longueurs of Don Quixote (one of the best versions around), the seductive rhythms of the Dance of the Seven Veils, and the public splendour of the Festival Prelude all make for a stunning sonic experience. Demonstration remastered ‘high definition sound’ once you get used to the slightly forward separation of solo cello and viola in Don Quixote.
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Ates Orga, BBC Music Magazine

Just how masterly Szell was as a Straussian is demonstrated in all three of these items, recorded in 1960 and 1961. By then Szell had built the Cleveland Orchestra into what was regularly described very fairly — as the finest in America. These performances with a slight reservation over the hectic opening of Don Juan bear out not just what tautness and precision of ensemble the orchestra were achieving, but the thrusting emotional intensity. Szell as a person was one of the most daunting of conductors, chilling anyone around him; he certainly had musical fires within him, a point I never doubted in the conversations I had with him in his last years. I am glad that the One of the century's great cellists, Pierre Fournier, in Don Quixote accompanied by George Szell Photo 11 m 1' booklet-note includes memories from the horn player, Myron Bloom, bearing out what feelings there were behind the chilly facade.

Bloom, one of the greatest of American horn players, promoted by Szell to be first horn in Cleveland in 1955, a year after he joined the orchestra, is also very well celebrated here. I was sorry when after Szell's death and Maazel's succession, he was persuaded to go to the Orchestre de Paris to sort out their horn section, for he made far too few solo recordings, and in Cleveland he might have made many more. This one of the Horn Concerto No. 1 is marvellous at bringing out the enormous range of dynamic and tone colour Bloom had at his command. In the outer movements lightness and agility are wonderfully contrasted with heroic power, and in the central slow movement the impact of the braying.fortissinio in the middle section is all the greater when set against such gentle poetry in the outer sections.

The other artist here celebrated is of course the cellist, Pierre Fournier, who made this version of Don Quixote several years before recording it with Karajan in Berlin for DG. The contrasts are fascinating, for against my expectation Fournier is freer in his rubato with Szell, who prefers more flowing speeds than Karajan, making this a noble portrait, the more intense for not being so expansive. The opening of Don Juan, as I said, is hectic in its pursuit of brilliance, but very quickly Szell finds the same combination of opulence and urgency that marks the rest of the disc. A most welcome historic reissue, very well transferred, with sound both warm and detailed.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [2/1998]