Our Summer BAL 7: R Strauss - Also sprach......

[visualnickmos]

A very elusive piece indeed: what should be the criteria for judging and pinpointing a library recommendation?

I have quite a few recordings - but find it impossible to pick one.
For example - Maazel has recorded at least 3, I think; I have 2 - the LPO and BRSO - what about his VPO version on DG - is it 'better' than his others? I enjoy (amongst others) Pretre, Kempe, Ormandy (several available)..... the list goes on.

What do you make of RS's masterpiece, and which interpretations "do it" for you - and why?

[makropulos]

A very elusive piece indeed: what should be the criteria for judging and pinpointing a library recommendation?

I have quite a few recordings - but find it impossible to pick one.
For example - Maazel has recorded at least 3, I think; I have 2 - the LPO and BRSO - what about his VPO version on DG - is it 'better' than his others? I enjoy (amongst others) Pretre, Kempe, Ormandy (several available)..... the list goes on.

What do you make of RS's masterpiece, and which interpretations "do it" for you - and why?

Very interesting question. I love Strauss but I really struggle with Also sprach (whereas I adore Heldenleben) and honestly don't know what to make of it. I have Kempe, Böhm, Reiner, Mackerras, Haitink and quite a few others and your post is going to make me go back to listen to at least one of them this afternoon. I really want to get this piece, but "elusive" is just what I find it.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Egad, Arnie S's [no, not that one!] Violin Concerto easily outrunning Strauss's Nietzschian Superman in the BaL Summer Stakes - 3 responses to 1! Visualnickmos and Makropulos, perhaps you're right to say it's elusive - nobody here seems to have got hold of it enough to share thoughts on versions I've always loved it from the days in the 60s/70s when you couldn't escape the opening on TV and radio .

But I'm startled to find I only have the EMI Kempe - was sure I'd bought the Reiner sometime, but the shelves only yield his Heldenleben, Don Juan and Domestica.

Ah well, something else for my Christmas list then!

[Curalach]

I see I only have one recording of this piece - Jarvi. Says it all really. A piece I am happy to hear occasionally.

[Chris Newman]

Very interesting question. I love Strauss but I really struggle with Also sprach (whereas I adore Heldenleben) and honestly don't know what to make of it. I have Kempe, Böhm, Reiner, Mackerras, Haitink and quite a few others and your post is going to make me go back to listen to at least one of them this afternoon. I really want to get this piece, but "elusive" is just what I find it.

I am in exactly the same boat. I have Reiner and Kempe both of whom I adore as Richard Strauss conductors, but Also Sprach!? Elusive? It has one of the greatest openings in all of late-Romantic music (Elgar, Schonberg, etc)...the most fabulous sound and then....the rest of it just goes as flat as a pancake. Nothing ever happens in Also Sprach that lives up to the expectation of that opening.

Ein Heldenleben, Elektra, Salome .... WOW!! Now you are talking!

[verismissimo]

It has one of the greatest openings in all of late-Romantic music (Elgar, Schonberg, etc)...the most fabulous sound and then....the rest of it just goes as flat as a pancake. Nothing ever happens in Also Sprach that lives up to the expectation of that opening.

Thanks for explaining why it is that I always get progressively more bored with it, Chris!

[verismissimo]

Somewhat ashamed of the above, I've got out Reiner and Karajan to try again!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The early VPO/Karajan/Decca was the version used in 2001 - A Space Odyssey

[Petrushka]

The early VPO/Karajan/Decca was the version used in 2001 - A Space Odyssey

It was indeed and this was the one I bought as long ago as February 1971 - my first ever Strauss disc and one of my very earliest classical records. I see from my heaving shelves that I have Karajan (1959, 1973, live 1964, live 1979), Reiner, Tennstedt, Haitink, Kempe & Solti (CSO, BPO). Karajan 1973 is usually taken as the benchmark in this piece and very fine it is too except, perhaps, for the digital remastering on the Galleria release. Is the 'Originals' issue any better? In my view, none of these recordings manage to capture the overwhelming grandeur of those first 40 seconds. As for the rest of the work, I appear to be a minority view in finding it a satisfying musical experience. Intriguing ending in two different keys as well.

If i has to choose one it would be Karajan 1973.

[barber olly]

The early VPO/Karajan/Decca was the version used in 2001 - A Space Odyssey

I always thought it was BPO Bohm on DGG!

My early experiences of Also were Reiner on RCA Victrola VICS1265 and Karajan on Ace of Diamonds SDD175, both excellent interpretations, but the recording that blew me away was Mehta on Decca SXL6379. Maazel on WRC subsequently on HMV Concert Classics was also in the reckoning.
Although Heldenleben has the wow factor and is a potted history of all RSt's music, the battle scene and the bit building up to it is stunning, Also is also a great work. I think the 5 RSt biggies I would rank in my order of preference
1 Heldenleben
2 Also
3 Alpine
4 Domestic
5 Quixote
(Aus Italien is an also ran).

[Petrushka]

I always thought it was BPO Bohm on DGG!

Alpen is correct in saying that Kubrick used the 1959 VPO/Karajan recording. The story is told on page 204 of John Culshaw's Putting the Record Straight.
Showing zero business sense, Decca gave permission for Kubrick to use it on condition that it was not credited. This left other record companies to reap rhe benefit by rushing out their own recordings. Culshaw reports that Karajan was furious.

As an aside, I once received a cheque at my then place of employment from Stanley Kubrick and signed by the man himself. I have kicked myself many a time since for not keeping it and replacing the money with my own as it wasn't for all that much.

[Barbirollians]

Kempe is enough for me - like the Domestica - not a work i need to hear very often.

[visualnickmos]

Steinberg with the Boston SO (DG) is pretty awesome...

An aside; is it just me, or does anyone else think that the long extended organ chord very near the beginning sounds a bit flat? I seem to think I may have at least one version (at most 3) where this is NOT the case, but I'm not going to listen to all them in a hurry to find out! To my horror or amazement, I have amassed 15! I need serious counselling.....

[BBMmk2]

I think I have Karajan's first DG recording and Szell's to. Both which I like very very much!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Showing zero business sense, Decca gave permission for Kubrick to use it on condition that it was not credited. This left other record companies to reap rhe benefit by rushing out their own recordings. Culshaw reports that Karajan was furious.

But Decca did well out of it too. The LAPO/Mehta version was a huge success.