Strauss Digital

James Strauss (b. November 29, 1974 Recife, Pernambuco) is a Brazilian flautist and musicologist.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better constellation for my first album!” says Cristina Gómez Godoy about her first recording. She has chosen this repertoire because these pieces made her fall in love with the instrument and music. As a musician in Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin-based orchestra, she feels very privileged to have recorded her first album with him, accompanied by the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, with whom she has played for many years.

“Guillaume and I worked day and night on both pieces and tried to do justice to every phrase, to give it contour and depth. During this radical quest for authenticity, we went to our utmost limits and beyond to comprehend these scores as profoundly as possible, to extract the composers' substance, in order to penetrate the endless musical universe of Strauss and Franck. This is because we know that we have to make 'a strong statement' amid the ocean of legendary recordings. We believe that we have achieved this and hope our listeners can feel and hear it.” (Brieuc Vourch)

Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester continue their PENTATONE journey through the heights of German late-Romantic repertoire with a recording of Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie. The Alpine Symphony was inspired by the composer’s experiences during a mountain trail, and is an audience favourite thanks to its picturesque, idyllic charm and powerfully evocative score.

Lucy Crowe makes her Linn recital debut with a programme of lieder by Berg, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg, which perfectly highlights why she is known as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation. Lucy is joined by pianist Anna Tilbrook, with whom she has forged a near symbiotic connection over a twenty-year professional partnership, comprising numerous performances at Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, London, and Carnegie Hall, New York.

Johann Strauss II’s operetta Waldmeister (‘Woodruff’) was staged for the first time in December 1895. The plotline—a case of mistaken identity somewhat reminiscent of Die Fledermaus—is lively, but the libretto itself proved to be less than satisfying.

Richard Strauss was in his element shortly after 1900 when he prepared to portray his now three-member family in a symphonic way: "Bubi" had expanded the cozy togetherness with his wife (and soprano) Pauline into a "trio con brio" since 1897 and the artist marriage was the greatest cheerfully mixed up.

The fourth album by the Piano Duo Walachowski is dedicated to works by the young Richard Strauss and the famous Schubert Fantasy in F minor.

The chosen repertoire on the album is Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, recorded 30 June 1983 at the Herkulessaal der Residenz, Munich and Richard Strauss’ Tod und Verklärung, recorded on 17 February 1979 also at the Herkulessaal der Residenz, Munich.