René Kollo stars in this 1974 atmospheric film-version of Lehar's beloved operetta by the noted Viennese director Arthur Maria Rabenalt. Kollo - whose father and grandfather were both operetta composers and who began his own career in light music - plays Prince Sou-Chong, the role that made a celebrity of another 20th-century tenor, Richard Tauber, and provided him with his most famous song. As performed here by René Kollo almost half a century later, "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" remains the musical highlight of this colorful romance set in Vienna and the Far East.
Richard Strauss’s (1864–1949) acceptance into the pantheon of great Lieder composers began in the early 1950s, perhaps marked by the enthusiastic reception of his Four Last Songs, premiered by Kirsten Flagstad eight months after Strauss’s death. It wasn’t long before these songs became widely performed, and by extension, his Lieder as a whole, began to gain greater acceptance as high art along with Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf. This compilation concentrates on Strauss Lieder recordings from an earlier era that display the sort of vocal charm and straightforward approach to the music not usually heard in today’s style of Lieder singing. Many of these recordings are extremely important historic documents retaining their position as the definitive versions of Strauss Lieder. Some of the singers included here not only knew Strauss, but worked with him, and their recordings could have been heard and judged by him. This three CD-set contains forty songs in eighty-two performances by fifty-seven singers.
This recording of Der Rosenkavalier captures the intimacy of the Glyndebourne opera house preserving what is, without doubt, an engrossing performance with notable contributions from key soloists at poignant stages of their careers. This 1965 production, first staged by Glyndebourne in 1959, was not without its casting complications. Baron Ochs was to be Manfred Jungwirth but only sang two performances due to ill health and was replaced by Otto Edelmann.