Strauss: Don Quixote; Ein Heldenleben; Symphonia Domestica
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Music Reviews of Strauss: Don Quixote; Ein Heldenleben; Symphonia Domestica
Music Review: Magnificent musicmaking but, indeed, a bad split on CD
Rating: 5 Stars
Austrian Herbert von Karajan (1908-89) is my favorite Strauss conductor. I have owned, on independent recordings, all three of these pieces. They all sound better here than in any earlier EMI pressing.
I enjoy the Don Quixote of Karajan and Rostropovich, which is sensitively played and very well-recorded. I find Beecham's ancient mono recording with cellist Paul Tortelier perhaps more Knight-worthy. Beecham's has been out of print a while but still can be found used on Amazon. It will be reissued again, I'm sure.
There is still no real competition to Karajan's Ein Heldenleben, in my opinion, and this reading sounds better than his earlier EMI pressing. I have owned and enjoyed the Kempe version Rudolf Kempe conducts Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben Op. 40 & MacBeth Op. 23 cited by a reviewer; it is a good recording, perhaps the second best I've heard. I also enjoyed the somewhat lower voltage rendition conducted by Semyon Bychkov Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben. Some versions I've heard that I don't like include Reiner's new SACD and Karajan's 1959 version on DG, which can't hold a candle to this one.
Karajan does well with Symphonia Domestica but there are many very good recordings of this music, perhaps more than either of the diskmates. That cut at the end, which forces you to play the other disk to hear the entire thing, is a big mistake by EMI. As the other reviewer said, the idea is to play this thing uninterrupted for 44 minutes. It is not actually a symphony; it is more like interconnected episodes or tone poems all related to the same thing -- life in the Strauss household.
So I'd say buy this if you must have sound that's improved over the older versions, or if you have never heard Karajan do these pieces before. In that case the combination will be worthwhile and you will enjoy a very great treat.
I think the $24 list price for this twofer is a bit high, given that it's not SACD and it contains that egregious cut in the domestic symphony. DG last year released a twofer with Karajan's fabulous 1975 Also Sprach Zarathustra, his digital reading of the Alpine symphony, and some other good Strauss pieces R. Strauss: Zarathustra; Don Juan; 4 Last Songs, etc. for less than this. BMG has been selling that twofer for $4 for the last few months. Seems to me EMI is exploiting the Karajan name a bit with this one.
Music Review: Karajan in his element; Grand, fairy-tale Strauss but brutally flawed packacing
Rating: 5 Stars
Although i think Herbert von Karajan is the most over-rated conductor ever these performances are one of the last ones i would use in defence of my opinion because they simply can not be over-rated.
Karajan as always brings grandeur to Strauss.I do not think it is always valid.For instance i much prefer Tennstedt's simple flow in Also Sprach Zarathustra but in these three works it makes magic.Karajan's habit of letting strings dominate everything is perfectly fine with Strauss, because to me the beautiful string writing is the most important element to Strauss' music.Berliner Philharmoniker strings' which generally sound creamy and cold are superbly lush and their virtuosity is incomparable.Karajan's interpretation brings out the dramatic aspects of the music so effectively that a listener may touch contact with the world completely and get captivated in the world Strauss is trying to tell with the music.
Soloists' contribution are brilliant too.In Don Quixote, Mstislav Rostropovich gives a wonderful performance that justifies his reputation as one of the best cellists ever.Even better is Michel Schwalbe,Berliner Philharmoniker concertmaster who gives a nicely moving and intelligently phrased account of Ein Heldenleben's violin solo with his glorious tone.A shame that he did not record many concertos as soloist (at least i am not aware of any,if you are please feel free write them to the comment part,i would appreciate it very much).It would be very interesting listens.
However,in Symphonia Domestica,there is one major concern.We are use to have some symphonies seperated two 2cds in these sets.Although barely,i find it acceptable because there is already a pause between movements of symphonies.However dividing Symphonia Domestica into two is totally unacceptable.This piece should be performed in 4 movements without any pauses whatsoever in between.This is disrespectful to composer,to the piece and to listener.Shame on everyone who decided to package this album like this.
In all wonderful performances are presented here but one is severely damaged by flawed packaging.Nonetheless it is great as both a listening pleasure and a documentary showing one of the most prominent conductors in one of the greatest composers.
Music Review: Classic readings from the 70s, now in much better sound
Rating: 5 Stars
Pace the reviewer below, it's rather late in the day to judge Karajan in Strauss--their pairing has been acclaimed for fifty years. These recordings date from 1973-74 at a time when Karajan asked for a huge acoustic from his recording engineers--the front-to-back depth is cavernous, with some instruments sounding a mile away (the solo oboe that opens Don Quixote, for example) while Rostropovich's cello jumps out of the speakers. Added to that, the upper register of the violins were shrill, even in the Karajan Edition remastering.
Some of those flaws have been corrected, and now all the performances deliver even more impact than ever before. I do find that Rostropovich is still miked too close--we hear his every note even when the orchestra plays tutti. Too bad, since his playing is detailed and often delicate, by no means an onslaught of star ego. Sinfomia Domestica was a showpiece of Karajan's, and although the violins still shriek a bit, the performance grows in stature by the decade.
Finally, we have a 70s Ein Heldenleben that is in much better sound than Karajan's 1959 account on DG. I am not an audio nut, but Strauss's spectacular orchestration requires the best sound possible. This isn't quite it--the Vienna Phil. under Previn on Telarc is better recorded--but the performances is certainly up to Karajan's highest standards. I wish the horns hadn't been miked so distantly, since they are a good deal of the thrill in Heldenleben, but you can't have everything. Some critics carp that EMI has gone to the well once too often with its Karajan discography, but he deserves the latest technology, doesn't he?
P.S. - Sept. 2009: Despite my unstinting praise, I must add that Kempe's equally classic account of Sinfonia domestica from Dresden (EMI) is more touchingly tender and less rhetorical than Karajan's. It's now my favorite.
Music Review: A very mixed bag for Straussians
Rating: 2 Stars
At first glance, this compilation of three Karajan recordings from the mid-1970s ought to be a no-brainer. This conductor excelled in the music of Richard Strauss (although some listeners may prefer the less opulent approach of Rudolf Kempe, as I do) and what by 1975 had become Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic was an enormous apparatus of precision. Moreover, EMI invariably gave Karajan richer sonics than his primary label, Deutsche Grammophon, and that's very much evident here. But a closer look suggests that this set is less than the sum of its parts. "Don Quixote" here is dominated by its star soloist, Mstislav Rostropovich, turning the work into a concerto for cello and orchestra; the cello part was far better integrated into the overall fabric of the score in Karajan's DG recording with Pierre Fournier. Similarly, this polished and sleek "Ein Heldenleben" sounds smug and superficial compared to the nuanced, detailed, and audibly affectionate performance Karajan delivered for DG back in 1959. Ironically, the best thing in this set is subjected to an insult that the work has probably never experienced before on CD: "Sinfonia domestica," which Karajan and the Berliners play here as though they thought it was the most wondrous music ever composed, is split between Discs 1 and 2, stupidly interrupting what is supposed to be heard as a continuous 44-minute span. In the days of LP, this split was unavoidable, but it's inexcusable (as well as unprecedented) in the CD era. Whoever made the decision to do so must not have had his morning coffee that day.Music Review: Great recordings in better sound!
Rating: 5 Stars
These three classic accounts of Strauss Tone Poems by Karajan can still stand test of time, as one of the most compelling and powerful performances of each work. Sumptuously recorded and beautifully remastered. Truly great recordings!