Die Frau Ohne Schatten

There are only two complete Die Frau ohne Schatten on the market. The Solti and the Sawallisch. It is fashionable to say that the Solti is the best. No, that is not true. Pascalnewman, a costumer from Amazon.com.

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten - Karl Böhm
MP3 kbps: 320 | 451 MB | NO COVER
Classical | 3 CDs | Label: Nota Blu | Release Date: 1993 | RAR 1% Rec. | RS.com

As Strauss' largest and most ambitious work, "Die Frau ohne Schatten" demands attention, even though it is one of his most problematic operas. It contains some of the composer's most stirring and sumptuous music, and its story is full of drama and roiling human passions – in fact, perhaps it is its surfeit of ideas and emotion and symbolism and intensity that makes it difficult to approach. Hugo von Hofmannsthal's heavily allegorical libretto was cobbled together from a variety of mythologies, yet he manages to humanize the characters so that they are not merely archetypes. Strauss' music is nearly relentlessly tumultuous, what some might call overwrought, yet he too makes us empathize with the characters. The key to making the gigantic, unwieldy opera into a cogent and balanced musical drama falls largely to the conductor, and Karl Böhm, leading the Vienna Philharmonic, is able give it the shape it needs to succeed in making believers of the audience. He is assisted by a first-rate cast, which more than rises to the composer's extravagant vocal and dramatic demands – the opera requires large voices able to convey larger-than-life personalities

Arthaus presents a rare document of an early nineties operatic highlight: the Japanese premiere of Wolfgang Sawallisch’s last production at the Bavarian State Opera. The Company’s tour of Nagoya and Tokyo in autumn 1992 under director and principal conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch was a particularly important event. Sawallisch was celebrating both the twenty-fifth anniversary of his first appearance as visiting guest conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and his departure, after twenty-one years, from his two principal posts with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Sawallisch - an acclaimed interpreter of the music of Richard Strauss - chose Die Frau ohne Schatten to commemorate these anniversaries.

This music is absolutely ideally placed to Jurowski’s strengths: his precision and ability to inspire playing of the greatest delicacy, pointing, accuracy and warmth is exactly what’s called for in this score’ Bachtrack.com, September 2012. This release marks the 29th on the LPO label conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, and is the first Jurowski-conducted Richard Strauss release to date.'