Customer Reviews

Strauss: Don Juan; Eine Alpensinfonie [Hybrid SACD]

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Now that the Alpine Sym. has come into its own and one can forget the decades when it was derided as the brontosaurus among Strauss's tone poems, we have a wealth of choice. No work shows off an orchestra's virtuosity as thrillingly -- not even Ein Heldenleben - and so it comes as no surprise that Europe's powerhouse orchestras have dominated the field, particularly Karajan's Berlin account from the early digital era. Now Jansons, with the advantage of spectacularly lifelife sonics, gives the old master a run for his money.

I have only heard the two-channel stereo version, but there's no hesitation in saying that the Royal Concertgebouw's house label must boast some of the best engineers in the world. Every detail in the playing is vibrantly alive. As intrpreations, both the Don Juan and Alpine Sym. are a trifle soft-grained, lacking Karajan's total command, but overall this is Jansons' most energetic recording in a while. I am not a worshipper at the altar by any means, but he rises to his best here.

On musical merits, I'd place this CD below Blomstedt on Decca, Welser-Most on EMI, and Karajan -- all are more viscerally exciting -- and I won't throw away the gorgeous Vienna Phil. account on Telarc under Previn, but Jansons joins that august company once you include the stunning sonics.

Alpensinfonie has great, simple architecture. The lows of the darkness before the dawn stretch out majestically as the climbers wait to be able to make out the mountain's outline and start the muscular ascent to the quiet peak and the storm-thrashed descent to safe ground before the darkness closes in again. We are at least partially compensated for the lyricism that falls short of Strauss's other works.

Being used to the Chicago-Barenboim recording from 1992, I find I like this Concertgebouw-Jansons version better for its SACD-strength sound. Barenboim may shape the performance to the architecture better, but he also stands back and lets the sections' sounds merge. I prefer the more clearly reproduced sound of the Concertgebouw's sections with a wider dynamic range: the players get a better chance to sell the music.

Details:

-- The Concertgebouw put its wind machine on the "whistling" setting.
-- Their offstage hunting party of horns is really 'way off stage.

As "certified" by Gramophone's recent poll, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons seems to carry the title of the World's Greatest Orchestra, and whatever one may think of that, there's no doubting they are indeed a magnificent band, and perhaps none better.

However, despite this honor, it has become hard to tell these days unless they are heard "live." For in days gone by, when the orchestra was led by Riccardo Chailly and magnificently recorded by Decca and released in their stupendous SACDs, the Concertgeouw's glory was undeniable. But today under Jansons and recorded "in house," it seems the current engineers are no longer able to equal the results (also in DSD) of what Decca unfailingly achieved in their recordings.

In short, I'd recommend to those wanting to relish Strauss' great orchestration in this colorful extravaganza do so with Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic (DG - SACD only) or best of all interpretively and with excellent sound despite its age, Rudolph Kempe and the Staatskapelle of Dresden (Red Book CD).

As for Jansons' performance of Don Juan, it is very good, despite the distant sound, and of course not up to the standard set by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (RCA)a half-century ago!

I was really excited to find that this recording is available for MP3 download even before the CD issuance date. However upon downloading, I found to my dismay that the Alpensinfonie has been sliced into 22 segments. The slicer is really set to aggravate and annoy the listener, often slicing right in the middle of a crescendo! Don Juan on the first band is a terrific performance, but with all the slices of the Alpensinfonie, it's impossible to really hear this piece, much less to assess its performance. Best to resort back to the old performance by Von Karajan. At least, the producer there had the decency to record and present the entire piece in one uninterrupted band. Buyer beware!