Don Juan

Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan [Repost]

"The Teachings of Don Juan" is the first in a series of about 15 books by Carlos Casaneda describing the author's experiences with Yaqui Indian shamanism in Northern Mexico. As a studier of religion for many years (although not as knowledgeable as some scholars) I find these books to be utterly unique in their scope and subject matter. They are not like other New Age books. The journey that Castaneda takes his readers is mind-boggling, and his experiences are simply beyond what most people have even remotely encountered.

This is a marvel. Save for a needlessly patronizing booklet-note, and for some unexpectedly poor brass tuning at a climactic point of DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION (the third of this disc's pieces), it would be flawless. While Dohnanyi fortunately takes his time over all these tone-poems (METAMORPHOSEN becomes insufferable if its conductor permits any suggestion of impatience), he never drags. Rather, one simply feels - as so often with, say, Solti's interpretations - that details (for instance, some string counterpoint in DON JUAN which most conductors couldn't be bothered to clarify) have been made freshly audible, thanks to the VPO's fierce virtuosity and to its helmsman's long-range vision of the music.

Is the imitation of rolling thunder, howling winds and bleating sheep a form of musical composition worthy of the name? Can we take seriously a composer who boasts of being able to ‘set a restaurant menu to music, if need be’? These were the kinds of questions that Richard Strauss, one of the most virtuosic composers of the so-called ‘programme music’, had to ask himself. His answer: ‘I am a musician from head to toe; for me, all “programmes” are merely incentives to invent new forms, nothing else.’ The NDR Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Urbański, has chosen to devote its sixth Alpha Classics recording to three of Richard Strauss’s most famous symphonic poems: Also sprach Zarathustra op. 30, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche op. 28 and Don Juan op. 20.