Till Eulenspiegel

This Blu-ray disc features rising star conductor Andris Nelsons leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a program of popular Richard Strauss orchestral works: Till Eulenspiegel, Macbeth and Also Sprach Zarathustra. Andris Nelsons is one of todays most sought-after young conductors, having worked with the worlds most important orchestras including the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Royal Concertgebouw and Philharmonia Orchestras. He is a regular guest at Covent Garden, the MET, Wiener and Deutsche Staatsoper and at Bayreuth.

Much like Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, and Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss truly stretched the abilities and the dimensions of the orchestra in his works, especially the symphonic tone poems by which most of the general music public know him by. Apart from creating works that require very large orchestral forces, Strauss also took chances in the musical keys that he utilized throughout his works, never actually settling on just one for his pieces, but often many. And to make thing seven more interesting, he often made very difficult subject matters, including literary works, the basis for his tone poems. Such is the case with this 1980 London/Decca recording by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Antal Dorati that highlights three of the composer's works in that arena.

Herbert von Karajan's post-war debut with Deutsche Grammophon was this classic 1959 recording of , coupled here with a sizzling account of from 1972/1973. Apart from Karajan himself, one of its stars was violinist Michel Schwalbé, who became the orchestral leader of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1957. According to critic Deryck Cooke, Karajan's performance has a fire and sweeping breadth which results, "surprisingly, not in bombast but in true nobility".

After two recordings devoted to Mahler’s Third and Fifth symphonies, François-Xavier Roth continues his exploration of the major works premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra. In the spotlight this time are two of the young Richard Strauss’s most brilliant achievements: Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote. In the latter, a symphonic poem in the guise of a double concerto, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Tabea Zimmermann form a picaresque duo playing the Knight of the Doleful Countenance and his squire Sancho Panza. © harmonia mundi

..The brilliance of Strauss' thematic manipulation and the skills of his orchestration were perceived from the beginning, while the exuberant presentation of his ideas came under suspicion as aimless meandering..