Customer Reviews

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Rosenkavalier Suite / Don Juan

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This daunting cover photo with a scowling Maazel has lost its point--on earlier releases, his hands, now shown normally, used to be electric blue! That was to connote the magic he transmitted through them, a la Stokowski, I suppose. As it turns out, the sound on this RCA release is excellent in terms of detail and impact, but I don't hear any magic form the podium.

Maazel takes a faceless,, uninolving approach to Also Sprach Zarathustra, and no amount of sonic wizardry can compensate for that. I think anyone might enjoy this reading, but for real magic, turn to Blomstedt on Decca, where the amazing sonics serve a much more passionate performance.

I profoundly disagree with the two preceding negative/lukewarm reviews; I don't know what they are listening to but I can only assume that there was something wrong either with the pressing or his equipment to have elicited such a condemnation of the recorded sound from the 2002 reviewer and the other judgement from the Santa Fe Listener strikes me as just plain perverse. (At least he recognises that the sonics are great, however.) It would seem that Dan L Francis and I agree, at least. This is a terrific CD; one of my favorite recorded performances: demonstration sound, a virtuoso orchestra and inspired conducting. Maazel gets everything right: he steers a prudent course between over-solemn, "Wagnerised" Strauss - a composer whose sunny, Italianate nature must always be recognised - and too ironic or flippant an attitude to this grand music. The climaxes are magisterial, even stunning, but there is still always room for the wit and warmth of this marvellous score. There is just the right degree of lilt in the waltz section of the "Tanzlied", a beautifully judged balance between tenderness, nostalgia and brilliance in the "Rosenkavalier" suite and real élan and thrust in the "Don Juan". As much as I enjoy Karajan's definitive 1973 recordings of Strauss' tone poems with the BPO, Maazel and the Bayerischen Rundfunks can give them a run for their money - especially with recorded sound of this spaciousness, depth and crystalline clarity.

(I, too, have the earlier edition of this CD featuring a cover with Maazel striking a gnomic pose with electric blue hands and it's really hokey - but I can forgive him the cheesiness when he produces a performance like this.)

These Strauss masterpieces have never received better modern performances. The Bavarian Radio Symphony is first rate and Lorin Maazel seems to be supercharged as he leads them through these masterworks. These are highly recommended in the Peguin Guide and I couldn't agree more. They are very passionate and exciting performances.

This is just a phenomenal recording. If all my CDs sounded this good I would sell my LP collection. The BRSO is one of the top orchestras in the world, more for their incredible ensemble playing if not for sheer beauty of tone. Maazel just picks the right tempi and gets the balances correct, which is what conducting is at least 75% about when it comes to music of this complexity and power. A delight.

A nice attempt to create a surround sound experience for the listener. There is a reason no one has done a review on this album - because it is not worth listening to. From the opening measures, the tone produced from this cd is bright enough to light a dark room. It has a "sizzle" quality that lends itself to abrassive fortissimo and takes away from all the lush sweeping qualities of the Strauss tone poems. There is pretty much one color to this entire CD, and that is bright neon yellow. The Bavarian symphony does a fine job of playing these technically difficult piece, but there is a sporatic rushed quality that should be replaced with a warm energetic quality. Some of the balance is really off too. Soloists can appear far in the distance and there is not much lower depth to the sound. My gift of two stars is overly generous.