Salomé Strauss

..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..

This highly acclaimed production of Strauss’ “Salome” from the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is staged by German director Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Starring Angela Denoke as “a brilliant Salome” (FAZ), who is joined by a great ensemble of soloists, Kim Begley, Doris Soffel and Alan Held. Performing with “great aplomb” (FAZ), the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Stefan Soltesz, was also enthusiastically celebrated by critics and audience.

Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben / Salome (Closing Scene)
NDR-Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg / Alessandra Marc, soprano / Donald Runnicles
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 284 MB | Full Artwork: 33 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Teldec # 8573-89365-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2001
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

Donald Runnicles is a highly successful Scottish conductor who mostly worked in opera houses until the 1990s, the decade he successfully branched out into the concert hall. He has generally divided his career equally between operatic and symphonic conducting since. Though he has worked extensively in the U.K. and Germany, he may be better known for his activity in the U.S. as conductor of the San Francisco Opera (since 1992), as principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and for his many popular recordings on the American label Telarc…

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.'

Others have praised this Covent Garden Salome for its dramatic impact, and with good cause. The direcotr, Luc Bondy, has translated the opera into tortured terms that the painter Egon Schiele would recognize; the sexuality is masochistic, frenzied, and self-destructive. John the Baptist is no solemn stick of wood – Bryn Terfel makes him as agonized and writhing as Salome herself. But the brunt of the Expressionist labor falls on the cat-like Malfitano, whose descent into madness is neither campy nor stagey. She's a great actress, and she adapts to the stylized movements straight out of Nosferatu with total conviction. (Only the opening scene is weak, since her girlish figure can't completely disguise that she is considerably too old to be the Judean princess.)… By Santa Fe Listener