Richard Strauss

Also Sprach Zarathusdra
Rosenkavalier Suite
Don Juan

Sinfonia Domestica
Tod und Verklärung

Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche
Ein Heldenleben

Eine Alpensinfonie
Macbeth

Symphonieorchestre des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Lorin Maazel
conductor

RCA 09026-63265-2 (4 CDs)

Strauss wrote ten tone poems and Maazel does all but Aus Italien and Don Quixote. Maybe these will follow.

The fortunes of Strauss' acceptance both critically and popularly has been curious and shows that in classical music just as in all things cultural what is true today is not necessarily true tomorrow.

When they were written Strauss'  acceptance by the public was considerable, his acceptance by critics variable. Then by about 1925 or so it was decided that mostly the tone poems were junk. Oh, Don Juan and Till were OK and Zarathustra had its moments but after that !

And as to the operas Salome and Elektra to be sure and certainly Rosenkavalier were wonderful but it was generally agreed that after that Strauss had shot his bolt and nothing else he wrote was much good. Only a man re-writing himself over and over again.

In the fifties there was a rapprochement and a complete volte face. Why is this? There are several explanations. One of which is that we have so few musical heroes these days Strauss is the lesser of many evils. And of course just maybe we' ve come to realize that even minor Strauss has its attractions. Anyhow all the Ten are frequently performed as are most of the operas.

And yes, critics still say nasty things about them all but they do sell out. By this time it is a rather juvenile person who even bothers to read the program for The Ten seriously if at all. To hell with all of that! The Music Ho!

Anyhow ...

If you' re in the market for a compendium of Strauss you could do worse than this set. Maazel certainly knows his onions and how to extract the pitch and sap from these extra verdant trees.

There are bright spots here such as Till which is a vivid portrait in all respects and in the death and reincarnation Maazel has something new and interesting to say. On the other hand I find his Don Juan as well as Zarathustra lacking in bite. Then Heldenleben is done in a non-serious way and pleases me as well as most. Those two last works  the Domestica and the Alpine sound and sound and sound which is about all that they can do. Macbeth seems to receive Maazel' s special attention and maybe we' ve underrated the work he seems to be hinting. The Death and Transfiguration also is thought over not slobbered over as so often happens.

As to the Rosenkavaler Suite  Strauss'  own arrangement - it' s hard to know what it' s doing here.

The Bavarian orchestra has improved a lot in recent years and is no longer the rag-taggle group it once was. Still it is not one the top orchestras and although Maazel whips them along occasionally that shows  or doesn' t show depending on how you look at it.

Sound is good but the organ in the Zarathustra is pretty bad. Probably the instruments fault not the engineers.

RCA says three CDs for the price of four so maybe this is a bargain.

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