Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]
![Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]](/images/Richard-Strauss-Also-sprach-Zarathustra-Ein-Heldenleben-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFQI-L.jpg)
List Price:
Our Price: $8.05
You Save: $1.94 (19%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.40 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Brand: RCAComposer: Richard Strauss
Conductor: Fritz Reiner
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
CD Release Date: 2004-09-14
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Sunrise
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Of the people of the unseen world
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Of the great longing
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Of joys and passions
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Dirge
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Of science
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): The convalescent
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Dance Song and Night Song
- Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 (TrV 176): Night Wanderer's Song
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero's adversaries
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero's companion
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero's battlefield
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero's works of peace
- Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 40 (TrV 190): The hero's retreat from the world and fulfillment
Music reviews of Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]
Music Review: Astounding sound & a window on an America long gone
Rating: 5 Stars
Musically, I came of age, so to speak, just as CD was consigning vinyl to "the dust-bin of history" (to steal a line from one of the 20th century's monsters).
I have to say that I've been absolutely blown away by these half-century old RCA recordings. In the 80s & early 90s, it was unwise to buy CDs with music recorded before about 1963-4. Digital to analogue conversion hadn't yet been mastered (pun intended).
RCA has done an absolutely amazing job with these recordings given their age and the primitive (almost 19th century) technology used to make them. The SACD versions simply pop. And it's difficult to tell that the vast majority of these recordings (and I have 15 of the series) are of such a vintage.
I imagine in a "Pepsi challenge" with some recordings, esp of "Zarathustra" on this disc, these disc would come out of top, whether in SACD or simple stereo mode. They are that good.
If you already have these recordings or you are just beginning your exploration of Art Music, you can't go wrong with these discs. The core of the modern repertoire is here in this series. You won't be sorry you started hear, especially with the ridiculously low price. (Indeed, I paid $3 and $4 more for these discs when I bought them last year!). So at $8 & $9, they can't be beat.
Even pieces like the ones on this disc or Chopin's Ballades and Scherzos--which most collectors will have multiple copies of as I do--are well-worth buying, especially to hear Rubenstein in his prime. Or the various conductors & orchestras in their hey-days.
While chamber music has become a huge success in the last 20-30 years, in part from the Baroque "original" instruments movement, in part because, it is much less expensive genre of music to record, requiring few instrumentalists.
And almost all are from "boutique" labels such as Naxos, the big orchestral classics of the 19th & 20th centuries have fallen by the way side. Most Symphonies have folded due to lack of interest, and thus, funding, so that few cities now, even large ones, have the SO's that they had 50 yrs ago. And with the major labels either gutting their "classical" catalog for "greatest" collections or eliminating the divisions altogether, it can be difficult to hear these grand pieces the way they were intended. This RCA series gives younger audiophiles--and budding ones--the chance to hear this music they way its composers intended.
Strauss was indeed a "rock star" of his day--who sadly disgraced himself by briefly collaborating with the Hitler regime--and he commanded the highest fees and royalties of his time. In both Zarathustra and the somewhat lesser known "Hero's Life" (to translate the German name of the second piece), the full treatment is delivered: 100+ piece orchestra, a grand maestro at the podium. In short, these discs are something of a time machine, transporting those of us under 40 back to the days when these pieces could be heard in any city of decent size in the US.
To reiterate: these are classic recordings restored to their glory as well as time machines to an America where the word culture didn't mean a political battle, and didn't mean American Idol or mass-produced garbage, whose packaging is as slick as the "product" inside is empty.
General CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
Andrea Bocelli - The Best of Andrea Bocelli: VivereAndrea; Release date: 2007-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Cheyenne Jackson, Michael Feinstein - The Power of TwoRelease date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $10.96
Price in other shops:
Il Divo - The PromiseSony; Release date: 2008-11-18; Music CD
Best price: $2.29
Price in other shops:
Cecilia Bartoli - Cecilia Bartoli: SacrificiumRelease date: 2009-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $15.81
Price in other shops:
Joshua Bell - At Home With FriendsBell; Release date: 2009-09-29; Music CD
Best price: $10.28
Price in other shops:
Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas: Deluxe Edition CD & DVDAndrea; Release date: 2009-11-23; Music CD
Best price: $16.89
Price in other shops:
Il Divo - The Christmas CollectionSony; Release date: 2005-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops:
The Priests - HarmonyRelease date: 2009-11-23; Music CD
Best price: $9.80
Price in other shops:
Il Divo - An Evening With Il Divo-Live In Barcelona (CD/ DVD)Release date: 2009-12-01; Music CD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
Andrea Bocelli - My ChristmasAndrea; Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $11.70
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Rhapsody in Blue / An American in ParisRelease date: 2005-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-Piano-Concerto-No-1-Rachmaninoff-Piano-Concerto-No-2-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFRC-X.jpg)
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $7.33
Price in other shops:
![Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Ravel-Daphnis-et-Chloe-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFHW-X.jpg)
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $8.41
Price in other shops:
![Bart??k: Concerto for Orchestra; etc. [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Bart-k-Concerto-for-Orchestra-etc-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFQS-X.jpg)
Bela Bartok, Fritz Reiner - Bart??k: Concerto for Orchestra; etc. [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
![Brahms, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Brahms-Tchaikovsky-Violin-Concertos-Hybrid-SACD-B0009U55RE-X.jpg)
Brahms, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2005-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $8.93
Price in other shops:
![Dvor?k's New World Symphony and Other Orchestral Masterworks [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Dvor-k-New-World-Symphony-and-Other-Orchestral-Masterworks-Hybrid-SACD-B00076OMW4-X.jpg)
Dvor?k's New World Symphony and Other Orchestral Masterworks [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2005-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $9.31
Price in other shops:
![Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Berlioz-Symphonie-fantastique-Hybrid-SACD-B000E1NWJ6-X.jpg)
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2006-02-07; Music CD
Best price: $8.35
Price in other shops:
![Respighi: Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Debussy: La mer [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Respighi-Pines-of-Rome-Fountains-of-Rome-Debussy-La-mer-Hybrid-SACD-B000E1NWJQ-X.jpg)
Respighi: Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Debussy: La mer [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2006-02-07; Music CD
Best price: $9.10
Price in other shops:
![Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Rimsky-Korsakov-Scheherazade-Stravinsky-Song-of-the-Nightingale-Hybrid-SACD-B0006PV5VC-X.jpg)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2005-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $9.21
Price in other shops:
![Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain, and Other Russian Showpieces [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Mussorgsky-Pictures-at-an-Exhibition-A-Night-on-Bald-Mountain-and-Other-Russian-Showpieces-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFRM-X.jpg)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain, and Other Russian Showpieces [Hybrid SACD]RCA; Release date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops: