Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise - in Rondeauform, Op. 28 / Salome - Tanz der sieben Schleier, Op. 54 ~ Solti

R. Strauss (Composer), Solti (Conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Solti
• Composer: R. Strauss
• Audio CD (February 11, 1997)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: London Records
• ASIN: B0000042FB
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,480 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great conducting; Lousy recording, August 3, 2011

By 

Truman (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise - in Rondeauform, Op. 28 / Salome - Tanz der sieben Schleier, Op. 54 ~ Solti (Audio CD)

Frankly, I was aghast after the highly promising opening to hear the sound in quieter passages anything but Decca quality (even Naxos could have done better I am sure). The beautiful melody for 16-part divided strings immediately after the opening fanfare sounds like broken shards of glass strewing all over the place. And that pretty much holds true for the duration of the piece -- very dry, air-less sounding strings.

I met Mo. Solti in San Francisco a few weeks before he died, so I am going to keep this CD for sentimental reasons. But Decca engineers ought to be ashamed for botching up this important gig.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Decca dissapointment, November 8, 2010

By 

Judy Spotheim "SpJ Judy" (Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise - in Rondeauform, Op. 28 / Salome - Tanz der sieben Schleier, Op. 54 ~ Solti (Audio CD)

It is so rare to find a recording of Solti conducting the Berlin Philharmonic that the one one finds here should be considered as rare as the Yetty.
It is only after that DGG and Decca collapsed into the Philips group conglomerate that contractual borders disappeared and a conductor (property of Decca) finds himself conducting an orchestra that was the property of DGG (and recording it for the rival label).
As a rule, Solti avoided the Berlin Philharmonic (Karajan long shadow caste there). And with this in mind I was anticipating the arrival of this CD. But what a sonic disappointment this one is:
True, it is a Decca recording but the team failed to weave the Decca magic here and failed to capture the stage and hall atmosphere. No, this does not begins to hold a candle or to be compared with the Vienna grandeur and delicacy as captured with this very same repertoire for Telarc).
The sound here on this Decca is closed-in, dark, thick, canned, has no breath, no true stage width, no depth behind the instruments.
It is a though the Decca recording team had no time to prepare for this event, to fine-tune the microphones locations or what sort of microphones to use.
It is a live recording (1996) the booklet says - so there might have been another "complication" for the Decca recording team:
The Berlin hall when empty is too reverberating and the sound become diffused, meager, cold and "gray" in colour (for lack of another word for it). This is very obvious when listening to many of DGG Karajan past recordings.
The Decca team had the hall at their disposal subdued this time and less reverberating more damped (public present) but the microphones and probably the console too were not those adequate to the task. It all sounds congested, mish-mashed without true directionality, missing airiness, delicacy, missing "soul".
The more I listen to this recording the more I believe that primarily it was taken for radio broadcasting and later used to release a CD.
This is a let down (and with all of my love for George Solti the conductor) and a huge disappointment.
For a much better and one of the greatest audio recording one should turn to the Telarc recording with the Vienna Philharmonic/ Previn.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The aged Solti in great form, leading rousing, virtuosic performances, December 8, 2010

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise - in Rondeauform, Op. 28 / Salome - Tanz der sieben Schleier, Op. 54 ~ Solti (Audio CD)

Decca was celebrating Solti's fifty years with the label when this live release came out in 1997; it was taped in the Berlin Philharmonie the year before, when the conductor was 83. In old age Solti, like Bernstein, preferred to be recorded in concert, but results could be mixed. The fieriest of conductors had banked his fires, for good and ill. When Solti was on, as in the second Meistersinger or the Mozart Requiem, one hears really superb musicianship, vigorous but seasoned. When he was off, the performance lost focus and wandered, as in some of his late Shostakovich recordings. On this occasion I hear many wonderful things. The Gramophone complained at the time that the strings sounded steely and recommended that readers opt instead for the earlier Strauss recordings from Chicago packaged as a bargain Double Decca. I can only shake my head. The transfers in that two-fer are piercingly shrill and glaring. This newer recording is far more listenable on my system.

As for the performances, they have a layer of crudeness removed. Also Sprach Zarathustra begins with grandeur but no wallowing or dawdling -- it's one of the most direct readings I know, and all the better for it. The Berliners play with robust magnificence. For Karajan they found more delicacy and nuance, but this isn't Debussy. Letting this music be as rousing and vulgar as it wants to be is fine with me. the only notable flaw is that Solti's phrasing is somewhat stiff at moments, but his ability to handle massive orchestral forces hadn't diminished at all. The two fillers to this relatively short (58 min.) CD are Till Eulenspiegel and the Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils. Till is marvelously played, with affection and no hint of pushing. As for Salome, I walked off the dance floor long ago, but this bit of lurid eroticism is also played with world-class skill, and Solti avoids excessive slinkiness (unless that's your thing).

As someone who has stood by Karajan's Strauss forever, this autumnal Solti concert came as a great and agreeable surprise.