Richard Strauss Recordings

Strauss is so loved that movies used some of his orchestra pieces almost as often as Vivaldi...

But the way he used voices is for me the deal...

And i will go for Reiner recording for sound quality, there is a 63 cd box i am curious about...

But some of my favorite musical ectasy are not well recorded at all...😁

Truly more less unrecognized geniuses are more for me like Scriabin or Gesualdo, or Robert Simpson...

Our "unconditional" love for a composer can only go to a composer who is way more than a genius only...

It must be for humanity as a whole as Bach certainly was, a revelation, for each one of us, and in particular as Bible for musicians... Bach is that, as only very few other composers could be who reveal to us unrecognized aspects of music on a spiritual side...But these others are matter of personal experiences and we will differ for our choices...

Josquin des Prez or Scriabin and before him Bruckner was revelatories changing life experiences for me...At some revelatory times in my life...

But it was never the esthetic dimensions alone that awake me ultimately in a composer , but the ethical truth revelation over the rethorical means and through the esthetical but over it... If i was more gifted as a musician and i am not, i could perhaps be more sensible to the pure esthetical aspect of all musicians... But i dont read music nor play music...

Each musical event is for me a seeing through the veil more than a sensual event...It is the reason why i love so much jazz, it is because the sensual and sensible living dimension of my body is there in a way it cannot be there in the three hours Christus Liszt...

it is also the reason why through a completely different ESTHETICAL doors, i love so much Iranian or Indian or Chinese or Japan music or middle eastern one... Here esthetic aspect, as new and complete ly different new roads, reveal a new way to ultimate truth...

Well, to be clear, I wasn’t being critical of anyone, especially anyone who posted here (reminds me of being synagogue on Rose Hashanah and being bitched out by the rabbi for the poor attendance.  Like Dude, you’re yelling at the wrong people).

I am just surprised that outside of the 4 Last Songs most posters don’t have much appreciation for him.  They and their systems are missing some fine music.  Nuff said

Lack of appreciaton is not what I get from reading these responses. However most of the reservations folks seem to have prevent them from truly loving his music. Strauss’ musicianship is always recognized and his manner of ’decorating’ time is one of extreme sonic beauty. But somehow many people seem to ’feel’ there’s something missing. I believe it was Otto Klemperer who said something about him that sums up the dilemma: Strauss was a genius, but he just didn’t care (not an exact quote, but words to that effect). I think that Klemperer, who championed his early operas, felt betrayed. As a young man Strauss was one of the pioneers in the expressionist movement, with the opera’s Salomé and Elektra. Both are very graphic portrayals of violent subject matters and especially Elektra was at the brink of tonal music. That line was consequently crossed by Schoenberg et al, but it seems Strauss had copped out. The next opera was Rosenkavalier and for all its sonic beauty it just feels complacent and even somewhat insincere to me. I often get that same feeling from his orchestral music, no matter how beautifully it sounds. These pieces were all written after Strauss’ decision to stay on the ’safe side’. You wonder if he ever had any regrets about making that choice and live to see Schoenberg, Berg and Webern get all the post war critical acclaim for changing the course of music.

There are a few Strauss pieces that seem to escape his ’escapism’, at least for me. Don Quixote has a deep ambiguity that is very moving and the Four Last Songs have a devastating emotional impact, despite the sentimental sonic atmosphere of the piece. These two I truly 'love', the rest is 'appreciated'.

I was too late to make corrections, but of course the famous tone poems were written before the ground breaking operas. This doesn’t take away the feeling that these pieces have a tendency towards sensationalism. It’s very effective for what it does, but emotionally they don’t really go much below the surface.

Another exceptional piece I forgot to mention was Metamorphosen, like 4 Last Songs a farewell piece of an old man.

As for ’best’ recordings: in the 4 Last Songs the performance of Schwarzkopf and Szell (on UK columbia/emi label) is in a class of its own, as is Klemperer’s version of Metamorphosen (also UK columbia/emi). There are many great performances of Don Quixote, but for me the Tortelier/Kempe (on HMV) and the Fornier/Szell (again UK columbia/emi) stand out.

I said the same thing about Strauss, he expressed himself through esthetics over truth ethic, but you said it way more precisely and way better than i did...Thanks...

Save i dont judge him as harsh as you only because he stay behind the revolution coming in music... This revolution of atonal music , was more a temporary exile from past esthetics endeavour and a stay in the desert waiting for some truth and looking for it over the past esthetics... But paradoxically Schoenberg reject all past esthethics looking for truth with a new esthetic...I prefer Scriabin even over Berg who enter himself consciously in the abyss between tonality and atonality and stay conscious on their border...This is the reason why he is so revered in Russia way less so in the rest of the world... For me Stravinski is like a super-Strauss...Someone i can appreciated and put over every modern composer by his genius but Stravinski never touch this part of my soul and heart looking for truth... As Strauss did sometimes  as you yourself put it in your post...Scriabin is not if we listen all his journey from saturated romanticism to extra terrestrial or deep spiritual expressions a reactionary... He moved us and at the same time  created new worlds with minimal means..

But from this passing in the desert of atonality , musicians discovered freedom at the end, and truth became not a new dogma or a past catechism but the discoveries of all earth musical traditions,oriental and the others and jazz as a true valued musical forms on their own among other values... Philip Glass is an example of this... They are many others like Arvo Paart... Or Robert Simson...

Even if he can be perceived as a reactionary , Ernest Ansermet taught something peculiar about tonality history and very central : truth must be put over esthetics... For sure the future was not to be in the Ansermet deep diktat , the future was freedom at last from all captivity, even from the truth jail...

History of music is in a way an history of human consciousness but not in a linear historical way as Ansermet depicted it in his mammoth book confusing european music with all music...

Thanks very much for this interesting post....

Lack of appreciaton is not what I get from reading these responses. However most of the reservations folks seem to have prevent them from truly loving his music. Strauss’ musicianship is always recognized and his manner of ’decorating’ time is one of extreme sonic beauty. But somehow many people seem to ’feel’ there’s something missing. I believe it was Otto Klemperer who said something about him that sums up the dilemma: Strauss was a genius, but he just didn’t care (not an exact quote, but words to that effect). I think that Klemperer, who championed his early operas, felt betrayed. As a young man Strauss was one of the pioneers in the expressionist movement, with the opera’s Salomé and Elektra. Both are very graphic portrayals of violent subject matters and especially Elektra was at the brink of tonal music. That line was consequently crossed by Schoenberg et al, but it seems Strauss had copped out. The next opera was Rosenkavalier and for all its sonic beauty it just feels complacent and even somewhat insincere to me. I often get that same feeling from his orchestral music, no matter how beautifully it sounds. These pieces were all written after Strauss’ decision to stay on the ’safe side’. You wonder if he ever had any regrets about making that choice and live to see Schoenberg, Berg and Webern get all the post war critical acclaim for changing the course of music.

There are a few Strauss pieces that seem to escape his ’escapism’, at least for me. Don Quixote has a deep ambiguity that is very moving and the Four Last Songs have a devastating emotional impact, despite the sentimental sonic atmosphere of the piece. These two I truly ’love’, the rest is ’appreciated’.