This
Eloquence release unites a collection of Strauss recordings
from the 1960s to the 1990s. None of them is a classic,
but there’s a lot to enjoy here and this is a good way
to collect this music at an attractive price.
To
start at the chronological beginning, Antal Dorati treats
Macbeth as
a work of youthful genius. Far from telling the story
of Shakespeare’s play, Strauss’s tone poem is more of
a character study of Macbeth and his Lady. Their themes
are laid out in contrast to one another, while battle
music rears its head from time to time. At the climax
the battle music overwhelms them both and the disintegration
of their two themes is rapid in the way it depicts their
fall. Dorati treats Macbeth with stormy turbulence,
while he brings a lush lyricism to Lady Macbeth’s music. Their
disintegration at the end is incisive and powerful, while
their collapse leaves their themes sounding quite pathetic. The
digital sound is close but warm.
Mehta’s
Alpensinfonie is
a bit of a mixed bag. The initial sunrise section is
underwhelming and there is no sense of awe when the mountain’s
theme first rumbles in the brass. However, it grows
in stature once the climb begins, thanks mostly to the
LA horns who really shine in this performance. The launch
of the climbing theme in the
Ascent section is
thrustful and urgent, and it remains so every time it
reappears, even after it is inverted. The entry into
the woods is dark and majestic, but then lightens with
some lovely string tone. The brook scene is pastoral
and quite playful, while the skittery strings are quite
remarkable in the apparition at the waterfall. The cowbells
on the meadow are a little difficult to make out. This
is thanks in part to the way they are placed. The arrival
on the summit isn’t nearly as radiant as it should be,
though the horns – again - make up for this in the climactic
Vision. The
tension before the storm is well controlled by Mehta,
but, when it breaks, the storm itself is rather tame
and passionless. So, perhaps unusually, this is an
Alpensinfonie where
the most successful moments are the quieter ones, such
as the reflectiveness of the final
Ausklang, and
the solemn beauty of the final night sequence. Fine,
but it doesn’t stand up to more recent competition, not
least from Jansons and the Concertgebouw.
It’s
in the
Sinfonia Domestica that you’ll find most
to enjoy here. It’s best not to analyse Strauss’s motivation
too much here otherwise, as in
Heldenleben, you’d
be cutting yourself off from some great music for the
sake of an academic smugness. Regardless of how self-regarding
Strauss may or may not have been, this reflection of
his family life is lots of fun. There is a pleasing
familial bustle to the opening in this performance, and
Mehta keeps the strings busy in their depiction of the
household’s routine. Bubi was the nickname for the Strausses’ young
son Franz, and his father givens him a lovely oboe d’amore
solo for his theme. The scherzo represents the boy at
play, but here it feels more graceful than playful: hard
to know if this is Strauss’s compliment to his son or
Mehta’s shaping of the score. If the horns were the
stars of
Alpensinfonie then the LA strings are
the stars of
Sinfonia Domestica, playing with
honeyed tone throughout. The lullaby in the third movement
is beautifully seductive and the clock strikes at just
the right pitch and volume. The string surge and tumble
in the tumultuous love scene, like the thrustful love
music of
Heldenleben and
Rosenkavalier. Very
Straussian horns punctuate their dreams, while we hear
glowing brass in a triumphal conclusion. The analogue
sound places a lovely bloom around the orchestra which
prevents the whole work from sounding too monumental.
The
oddity here is the
Parergon zur Sinfonia Domestica. Parergon
means “complement”. In 1924 Strauss’s son, Franz (Bubi),
suffered a severe attack of typhus and nearly died. His
illness and recovery gave Strauss the idea of building
a composition around Franz’s theme from
Sinfonia Domestica but
giving it a darker hue to depict his illness and then
later resolving it happily to depict his recovery. The
work also served as his response to a commission from
Paul Wittgenstein, the famous pianist who had lost his
right arm in the First World War and who commissioned
equally famous works, such as Ravel’s concerto for the
left hand. The opening of the piece surges with passionate
intensity worthy of
Don Juan, and the playing
from both piano and orchestra is very virtuosic – one
might almost say chaotic. One of the highlights is a
really beautiful clarinet theme about 13 minutes in,
which is then worked vigorously by the piano into a full
orchestral celebration of Franz’s youth. The piano and
orchestra complement each other very well here and the
digital sound is very clear.
For
some collectors the
Parergon might be a good enough
reason in itself to buy this set, but most will agree
that it’s a novelty worth investing in and listeners
new to any of these works won’t be disappointed with
what they hear. The budget price undeniably helps.
Simon
Thompson
Review index for Strauss symphonies and tone poems
Los Angeles
Philharmonic Orchestra/Zubin Mehta 
