Richard Strauss Karajan

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegel - Wiener Philharmoniker; Herbert von Karajan
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 397 MB (3% recovery) | Complete scans | FLAC +LOG+CUE
Publisher: Decca | Recorded: 1961 | Published: 2000

Karajan was a great Straussian, and this collection, produced by John Culshaw in 1959-60, with the VPO (especially the strings) in superb form, shows him at his most charismatic. Also sprach Zarathustra was a famous early Decca stereo demonstration record, and remains as spectacular as ever. The many-faceted portrait of Till is delectably witty, Don Juan is exciting, racy, and full of sensuality, which is voluptuously shared by the dramatic and sinuous 'Salome's dance'. The transfers undoubtedly recreate the sonic excitement of the originals.
Ivan March, Gramophone

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and their Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis continue their acclaimed survey of the orchestral music of Richard Strauss with two contrasting, characterful and ambitious works.

William Steinberg’s famous readings of Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra and Holst’s The Planets newly remastered at 24-bit/192kHz. 1 Blu-ray Audio disc (new quadrophonic remastering) + 1 CD (new stereo remastering) in DigiPack format. These recordings remain mementos of Steinberg’s brief tenure as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director (1969-1972) – cut all too short due to ailing health – and are of the first rank both musically and technically. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first performance of “The Planets”. Includes booklet notes (E, D) on Steinberg and the BSO and an essay on quadrophonic recording.

Järvi’s version of Zarathustra strikes me as one of the finest ever, a recording to stand alongside those of Reiner, Karajan and Previn. The performance of the opening ‘Sunrise’ makes such an impact that I initially wondered whether the rest of the piece might sound anticlimactic in comparison, but Järvi sustains the intensity through to the end…. The eloquence of the orchestra’s strings also makes a strong impression in Metamorphosen…

In no piece is the competition very wide because there never have been many recordings of the Der Bürger als Edelmann, the Duetto-Concertino, or even the Sextet from the Capriccio by Richard Strauss. But in every piece, the competition is as good as it gets with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony on one Der Bürger and Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia on the Sextet. But despite the odds, Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen perform as well or better than the competition. Järvi is alert to the tone color, the rhythmic impetus, and the ironically affectionate edge of Der Bürger.

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28; Don Juan, Op. 20; Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 -
The Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell, conductor
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 260 Mb | FLAC+LOG+M3U+Cue | Full scans | 2 RS links
Publisher: CBS Records Masterworks; 1985

One of the very best records The Cleveland Orchestra made with late George Szell… marvelous orchestral playing and exhilarating excitement – The Gramophone

The controversial 1995 Salzburg/Paris co-production of Der Rosenkavalier received a well-deserved revival at the Baden-Baden Festival in 2009. Now on DVD, Herbert Wernicke’s 15-year-old approach turns out to be curiously middle-of-the-road.
Wernicke’s fascination with mirrors proves fruitful here, creating a giant Rorschach test, fractured and multiplied on a vast scale, to provide a riveting visual framing of the artifice and actuality of the work, interweaving drama and comedy, male and female, youth and maturity, pretence and reality, that makes it all appear indissolubly tied together.

The Karajan Official Remastered Edition comprises 101 CDs across 13 box sets containing official remasterings of the finest recordings the Austrian conductor made for EMI between 1946 and 1984, and which are now a jewel of the Warner Classics catalogue.
For many, Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) – hailed early in his career as ‘Das Wunder Karajan’ (The Karajan Miracle) and known in the early 1960s as ‘the music director of Europe’ – remains the ultimate embodiment of the maestro.