This hefty 2023 release on
Signum Classics -- a double album of
Strauss tone poems -- marks several new developments. At its core are two
Strauss works performed by the
Philharmonia Orchestra in 2021 on its first concert with its new conductor,
Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Moreover, this was the first concert by the orchestra since reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic. With
Rouvali, the news is all good, and one might argue that the live setting added a special intensity.
Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64, and
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, were recorded live, and these are impressive performances that have a bit more of an edge that the studio recordings of
Don Juan, Op. 20, and
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28, that frame them. The pictorial vividness of the
Alpensinfonie makes the mountain scenes almost palpable, and the
Philharmonia's long history with
Strauss really shows in the instrumental work in exposed sections like the "Stille vor dem Strum" ("The Calm Before the Storm"). With the sound recording on the
Philharmonia's in-house label (distributed here by
Signum Classics) the situation is less happy; the sound is a bit muddy in thick passages like the big fugue toward the end of
Also sprach Zarathustra. It improves noticeably in the two outer tone poems, which receive beautifully characterized performances. Nothing impeded audience from putting this excellent
Strauss reading on classical sales charts in the spring of 2023. ~ James Manheim
![Variation[s], Vol. 1: Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Webern](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/3149020944936_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Variation[s], Vol. 1: Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Webern")