BaL 26.11.22 - Strauss: Don Juan

[symphony1010]

So many versions but I have to say I was surprised by the 'result'. When the Honeck disc was released it seemed to me to capture Strauss as it should be played. Tod und Verklarung seemed as close to old Karajan benchmark recording as I'd ever heard and those Pittsburgh horns in Don Juan won the day for me. I love the way Honeck lets them sit back on the tempo as the final section begins. Our reviewer today then tells us the Dresden horns are superior and I must admit I nearly fell off my chair. I know not everyone likes American horn sound but to my ears it sounds ideal in this music.

[visualnickmos]

Why?

And I thought the era of rhetoric was over!

[Pulcinella]

So who won? Kempe/Dresden?

Indeed (see my Hurrah in #40). It's available as part of a bargain box set too.

I'm sure that Alpie will update the list soon.
Meanwhile, this is from the R3 schedule page.

10.30am – Building a Library: William Mival on Richard Strauss’s Don Juan

Recommended recording:

Staatskapelle Dresden
Rudolf Kempe
Warner Classics 3458262

Other recommendations:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner
Sony 88697712632

Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR180221 (5 Hybrid SACDs + Blu-ray)

Wiener Philharmoniker
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Warner Classics 9029651671

[visualnickmos]

Bernstein for me; hits all the boxes. Comes in at just over 16 minutes. New York Philharmonic, RCA.

[Master Jacques]

This morning's BaL had an unexpected and rather shocking effect on me. I realised that I don't care to listen to Don Juan again, even in Kempe's supreme winning version. After well over half a century this piece, at least, has run out of juice for me. My loss.

[CallMePaul]

Can someone please explain why both reviewer and host pronounced the work's title as Don Jew-an as if it were Lord Byron's epic poem. The work has nothing to do with Byron, so surely it should be pronounced as in Spanish (as Don Juan was a legendary Spanish seducer)? Alternatively, would Strauss as a German speaker have said Don you-an?

[Pulcinella]

Bernstein for me; hits all the boxes. Comes in at just over 16 minutes. New York Philharmonic, RCA.

Interesting: see my post, #4.

[Master Jacques]

Can someone please explain why both reviewer and host pronounced the work's title as Don Jew-an as if it were Lord Byron's epic poem. The work has nothing to do with Byron, so surely it should be pronounced as in Spanish (as Don Juan was a legendary Spanish seducer)? Alternatively, would Strauss as a German speaker have said Don you-an?

Interesting point. I can only ever remember the Strauss tone poem being pronounced the Byron way ('Jéw-un'), at least in the UK, and especially on the BBC. It is, after all, the traditional English way of pronouncing the character's name. In German as you say it is pronounced 'Don Yú-an, as J is pronounced Y in that language. That is preferable, surely, to using the Spanish pronunciation. Mind you, where are we with Strauss's Don Quixote, in English (Quick-sote) or German (Ki-shot-eh) or Spanish (Ki-hot-eh)? I won't even start in on that one!

Lenau was influenced by Byron in general (though not by Byron's Don Juan) in particular) and the important thing is that all three - Byron, Lenau, Strauss - present a romantic hero who is very different from the original Spanish "trickster of Seville" in Tirso de Molina, who is the fount of all literary and operatic recreations of the character. So I feel that using the English pronunciation (from the time Strauss's work was first heard here, it seems) is completely natural, in Britain at least. Then the German. Last, the Spanish.

[BBMmk2]

Can someone please explain why both reviewer and host pronounced the work's title as Don Jew-an as if it were Lord Byron's epic poem. The work has nothing to do with Byron, so surely it should be pronounced as in Spanish (as Don Juan was a legendary Spanish seducer)? Alternatively, would Strauss as a German speaker have said Don you-an?

Agreed. Like other words are pronounced, these days!

[french frank]

Interesting point. I can only ever remember the Strauss tone poem being pronounced the Byron way ('Jéw-un'), at least in the UK, and especially on the BBC.

Yes, I think the only 'connection' with Byron is that his poem set the generally accepted English pronunciation since English doesn't have the sound of Spanish J; so when people are speaking English they will often/usually opt for the English 'translation' as they often/usually do for Don Quixote, and for the same reason. French similarly has French pronunciations for both names.

[Master Jacques]

Yes, I think the only 'connection' with Byron is that his poem set the generally accepted English pronunciation since English doesn't have the sound of Spanish J; so when people are speaking English they will often/usually opt for the English 'translation' as they often/usually do for Don Quixote, and for the same reason. French similarly has French pronunciations for both names.

Byron does seem one of the first English writers to use the Spanish spelling, at a time when the Italian 'Don Giovanni' was ubiquitous. It is intriguing to note that Shadwell's 1675 popular play The Libertine (an adaptation of Tirso de Molina's play, but taken from a French translation, with an original score by William Turner) is the earliest 'Don Juan' on the English stage, though the character is Englished there as 'Don John'. Purcell's incidental music for Shadwell's play (including the evergreen "Nymphs and Shepherds") dates from a later revival.

[visualnickmos]

Agreed. Like other words are pronounced, these days!

Alternatively, would Strauss as a German speaker have said Don you-an?

I somehow doubt it.

[Master Jacques]

Alternatively, would Strauss as a German speaker have said Don you-an?

I somehow doubt it.

We should bear in mind that today's custom of trying to pronounce foreign names according to the original language is a recent one (and we still don't talk much about 'Veeun' or 'Paree', to give two obvious examples!)

I don't suppose that late 19th c. Germans were any less inward-facing than we were, and have no doubt that Strauss talked about 'Don Yúan' (though there's nothing to suggest it was definitely scanned one way or the other, where the name's mentioned in Lenau's fragmentary play).

[Barbirollians]

William Mival following on from Joanna McGregor in rebelling against AMcG's apparent obsession with modern recording quality . A very worthy runaway winner in Dresden Staatskapelle/Kempe with two BPO recordings Karajan and Rattle following on with Reiner close up.

The extract he played after the Honeck which WM was complimentary about was indeed very telling.

[cloughie]

We should bear in mind that today's custom of trying to pronounce foreign names according to the original language is a recent one (and we still don't talk much about 'Veeun' or 'Paree', to give two obvious examples!)

I don't suppose that late 19th c. Germans were any less inward-facing than we were, and have no doubt that Strauss talked about 'Don Yúan' (though there's nothing to suggest it was definitely scanned one way or the other, where the name's mentioned in Lenau's fragmentary play).

…and no doubt Parisians think that England is Angleterre and the capital Londres! I’ve no idea what the Viennese say!