Richard Strauss
234 products
Richard Strauss: Die Frau Ohne Schatten / Böhm, Rysanek
Leonie Rysanek is the familiar Empress, seemingly hypnotized and enchanted, her voice settling down after some initial pitch problems mid-range to offer a glorious reading, with gleaming, cutting top notes and true sentiment throughout. She makes us feel for the character and her plight. Her Emperor is the beefy tenor Hans Hopf, who is less crude than usual and has the notes and stamina for the role, particularly in the seemingly endless final scene, which, when presented as complete as is it here, can be quite a challenge.
As the Dyer's Wife, Christel Goltz is not quite in the same class with the others; her singing is secure and good enough but she lacks any subtlety and can't compare with, say, Christa Ludwig in the role. Elisabeth Höngen's Nurse is nasty and biting, and she gets through the role without shouting. Kurt Böhme's Messenger is potent and the rest of the cast--Vienna stalwarts from the '50s--is top notch.
Böhm captures just the correct otherworldliness of the music, and the Vienna Philharmonic, tam tam, gongs and all, plays with great feeling and love. The sound is pure, clear monaural (the studio recording is early stereo but is essentially no better), with even the harps audible; Strauss' exotica is underlined but not so prominent that we can't hear the gorgeously tonal score. The vibrancy of the live experience is thrilling. If you own the Decca, you won't need this, really, but you must own one or the other.
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com
Strauss: Ariadne Auf Naxos / Bohm, Kunz, Berry, Baltsa, Janowitz, Gruberova
Strauss: Arabella, Four Last Songs / Della Casa, Fischer-Dieskau, Keilberth, VPO
Lisa Della Casa and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - this was an ideally cast Arabella with a dream couple in the leading roles. For years this production was a model for Munich and Vienna. It can now be heard for the first time in its original version, with the incomparable Strauss sound of the Vienna Philharmonic under Joseph Keilberth - the sensation of the 1958 Salzburg Festival.
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote / Ormandy
Strauss: Don Quixote, Etc / Ma, Ax, Ozawa, Et Al
This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording
R. Strauss: Four Last Songs, Etc / Te Kanawa, Davis
This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording
Strauss: Waltzes And Polkas /Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
Includes waltz(es) by Johann Strauss Jr.. Ensemble: Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Eugene Ormandy.
Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
Symphonia domestica, Le bourgeois gentilhomme
"Fritz Reiner’s 1956 performance of Richard Strauss’s Symphonia domestica was essentially its first recording in modern stereo sound. As such, it probably introduced the work to many American listeners. Prior to this, recordings conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Clemens Krauss and the composer himself with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra were undoubtedly authoritative, but hardly competitive from a sonic standpoint. Subsequently, fine stereo versions by Rudolf Kempe (EMI), Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche Grammophon), and Zubin Mehta (Decca-London) have been released, but none of them are superior to Reiner’s justly famous Living Stereo interpretation. This represents the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its peak, and Reiner had no peer as a conductor of the orchestral music of Richard Strauss. If anything, Reiner’s no-nonsense style is even more suited to the charming, chamber-like Le bourgeois gentilhomme Suite."
-- Arthur Lintgen, Fanfare [1/2008]
Scenes From Salome And Elektra
"Solti's now-infamous comment that the Chicago Symphony was a provincial orchestra before he appeared is further discounted by the reissue of these unrivalled performances. None of Reiner's successors as a Strauss conductor, neither Solti himself, Kempe nor Sawallisch, seems quite to achieve the clarity of texture, mastery of line and intensity of feeling displayed in these recordings of 35 years and more ago, nor has any orchestra, certainly not the CSO of Solti's day, evinced the richness and brilliance of sound found here. Above all, Reiner brought to these scores, especially Elektra, a classic grandeur of utterance, a saturated sound that overwhelms the ear without ever deafening it. Perhaps these impressions are enhanced by the superb recording, preferable to so much that passes for good sound today. The fidelity, even balance and deep sonority of this early stereo in Chicago is truly amazing. Just as arresting is the perfect placing of the voices in relation to the orchestra."
-- A.B., Gramophone [5/1993]
Also sprach Zarathustra
"Reiner's 1954 Also sprach is arguably more characteristic than his 1962 RCA remake. That is to say, it is even more intense and extrovert. In his second year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the conductor was already getting a thrilling response from the strings, although woodwind intonation could be a problem. Confident and well played as it is, the spectacular opening sunrise inevitably lacks the impact of, say, Preyin's Telarc recording (the organ is particularly disappointing). Nor is there the dark solemnity of and detail in the bass familiar from Karajan's DO versions. What we have instead is a measure of raw passion and forward thrust unequalled on disc. In reflective passages, conductor and/or engineers display some reluctance to achieve a real pianissimo, but as the tempo builds Reiner invariably creates great excitement and the orchestral playing is marvellous."
-- David Gutman, Gramophone [12/1992]
Don Quixote, Burleske
Throughout his career Fritz Reiner showed a particular affinity for the music of Richard Strauss. Here he delivers an exceptionally vivid account of Don Quixote – each bizarre episode from the eccentric knight’s adventures is portrayed with razor-sharp insight. One notices, in particular, Reiner’s miraculous attention to detail, his unfailing grip on the structural direction of the work and the superb response from both soloist and orchestra. With its flashes of sardonic wit, the earlier Burleske makes for an excellent coupling, and illustrates Reiner’s formidable prowess as a concerto accompanist. By any standards, a self-recommending issue.
-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine
Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninov: Cello Works
Works For Cello And Piano
Sonatas for Violin & Piano
Vier Letzte Lieder, Wesendonck
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Don Juan / Ormandy, Szell
R. Strauss: Sinfonia Domestica, Parergon / Zinman, Et Al
Bruno Walter Edition - Strauss, Barber, Dvorák
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Richard Strauss: Salzburger Liederabende
Strauss Family: Favourite Dances
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben - Sextet from Capriccio
Strauss: Piano Quartet In C Major, Op. 13 etc. / Blumenthal, Dinglinger, Nys, Vay
A radically systematic logic stunningly manifested itself quite early in the music of Richard Strauss. He avoided the instrumental genres, was attracted to the tone poem right from the very start, and worked toward the goal of making the opera his central focus. And yet his beginnings lay in chamber music, a fact demonstrated on this release with two examples in new recordings. The Piano Trio No. 2 is lengthier than its predecessor and very ambitious both in its tonal register and execution. The formal norms – sonata form, song form, scherzo, and then another sonata movement – are upheld with completeness and elegance. The piano trio had a long line of tradition going back to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, but the composer who set standards in the middle of the nineteenth century is particularly clearly recognizable here in a model function: Mendelssohn. Only about seven years passed between this trio and Strauss’s only Piano Quartet, but in 1885 too he was still a very young composer. The quartet displays impressive advances in technique; now Strauss apparently could draw on all the compositional resources then available, and the higher virtuosic demands on the instrumentalists are also quite evident. Strauss attracted the greatest attention with his large-format op. 13 lasting almost forty minutes, a work that even brought him a prize from the Berliner Tonkünstlerverein.
EIN HELDENLEBEN & TOD UND VERK
Richard Strauss: Die Schweigsame Frau (Salzburg 08.08.1959)
R. Strauss: Don Quixote, Etc / Ma, Ozawa, Boston So
Der Rosenkavalier / Waart, Rotterdam Philharmonic
Der Rosenkavalier is one of Strauss’ best known operas. Set in Vienna during the early years of the Empress Maria Theresa’s reign, the work takes the form of a comedy in 3 acts, set to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It bears a strong resemblance in terms of plot to Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and is written in a different vein to Strauss’s preceding avant-gardist creations, something the composer, appearing to have succumbed to popular taste, was heavily criticized for.
Legendary Strauss Recordings
R Strauss: Symphonic Music From Operas / Mehta, Berlin Po
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
The Royal Edition - R. Strauss: Don Quixote, Etc / Bernstein
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- Ates Orga, BBC Music Magazine
Toscanini Collection Vol 30 - Richard Strauss: Don Quixote
-- Gramophone [1/1991]
Strauss: Burleske, Also sprach Zarathustra / Reiner
-- David Nice, BBC Music Magazine
reviewing these performances previously reissued as part of RCA 68635
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathrustra / Reiner, Chicago
This recording was originally released in 1954.
R Strauss: Don Juan, Burleske, Serenade, Till Eulenspiegel
"Berglund proves himself a thorough-going Straussian with his whiplash interpretation of Don Juan, one of the best of the many recent versions. . . . The performance of Till is splendidly lively, with crisp woodwind playing. . . . There have been several good performances of the Burleske in recent years and this one by the young Russian pianist Sergei Edelmann is dazzling in its virtuosity and high spirits. . . . An attractive disc." -- Gramophone
