Top 5 Favorite R. Strauss Works

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I suppose it's time for an update as it's been quite some time since I've posted in this thread.

In no particular order:

Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64
Vier Letzte Lieder, TrV 296
Hornkonzert Nr. 2 in E-flat major, TrV 283
Sechs Lieder, Op. 56

[Symphonic Addict]

Eine Alpensinfonie
Salome
Don Quixote
Vier letzte Lieder
Ariadne auf Naxos (or Die Frau ohne Schatten, I can't decide)

[Mirror Image]

Eine Alpensinfonie
Salome
Don Quixote
Vier letzte Lieder
Ariadne auf Naxos (or Die Frau ohne Schatten, I can't decide)

Nice list, Cesar. All are outstanding works. Here's perhaps a tough question for you, what is your favorite performance of Vier Letzte Lieder?

[Symphonic Addict]

Nice list, Cesar. All are outstanding works. Here's perhaps a tough question for you, what is your favorite performance of Vier Letzte Lieder?

I have in high esteem Norman/Masur (Philips) and Janowitz/Karajan (DG). I've seen that you have been listening to Schwarzkopf/Szell lately. Many consider it the performance to beat, so I really want to hear it soon.

[Mirror Image]

I have in high esteem Norman/Masur (Philips) and Janowitz/Karajan (DG). I've seen that you have been listening to Schwarzkopf/Szell lately. Many consider it the performance to beat, so I really want to hear it soon.

I love the Janowitz/Karajan performance. The Norman/Masur is quite good, too, but is ultimately weighed down by Masur's plodding tempi, which aren't to my taste in this work. For me, there must be some kind of undercurrent of forward momentum happening in Strauss for it to jolt you in the right way. Yes, the Schwarzkopf/Szell is off-the-scale. A lot of people even prefer Schwarzkopf's earlier recording with Otto Ackermann, but it's in mono and it just doesn't have the kind of opulence it needs, so this is where her performance with Szell hits all the right spots. Szell's accompaniment also is decisive and completely in service to the music like Schwarzkopf's own performance. All the stars aligned marvelously during this performance. Some other Vier Letzte Lieder performances I enjoy: Isokoski/Janowski and Studer/Sinopoli (<--- probably my second favorite performance after the Schwarzkopf/Szell).

[ritter]

I believe I haven't answered this poll yet. It isn't that easy: sometimes, my answer would be "none", as I only perceive emptiness and bombast in Strauss' music. On other occasions, though, I feel very close to the composer's oeuvre (go figure). Be that as it may, this would be my list (in chronological order of composition):

- Tod und Verklärung (the only one of his tone poems I really enjoy)
- Elektra
- Ariadne auf Naxos
- Daphne
- Vier letzte Lieder

So, it's clear that for me RS is mainly a vocal / operatic composer, and that I'm not really that attuned to his orchestral music.

[Brahmsian]

Eine Alpensinfonie
Salome
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Violin Concerto
Burleske

I use to enjoy Ein Heldenleben more in the past, but now I find it a bit of a bore (and too long!)

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I believe I haven't answered this poll yet. It isn't that easy: sometimes, my answer would be "none", as I only perceive emptiness and bombast in Strauss' music. On other occasions, though, I feel very close to the composer's oeuvre (go figure). Be that as it may, this would be my list (in chronological order of composition):

- Tod und Verklärung (the only one of his tone poems I really enjoy)
- Elektra
- Ariadne auf Naxos
- Daphne
- Vier letzte Lieder

So, it's clear that for me RS is mainly a vocal / operatic composer, and that I'm not really that attuned to his orchestral music.

A fine list, although our own views are quite different, which is understandable. I look at Strauss as someone who mastered orchestral composition first and then triumphed in operatic music, but this obviously couldn't have happened had his orchestration skills been fully formed. I think your view (or sometimes your view ) that his music is emptiness and bombast could be one that is leveled at many other composers, especially Bruckner, Wagner, Shostakovich, Mahler et. al. I think what is important is how the music affects us emotionally/intellectually. I've loved Strauss on first-listen and I can't really explain why the music resonated so deeply with me, but he wasn't a composer that I had to learn to love --- it was completely natural.

P.S. I could've picked Elektra and Daphne easily as I love both of these operas. I'm still getting to know Ariadne auf Naxos.

[Mirror Image]

Eine Alpensinfonie
Salome
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Violin Concerto
Burleske

I use to enjoy Ein Heldenleben more in the past, but now I find it a bit of a bore (and too long!)

I'm quite the opposite of you, I used to find Ein Heldenleben too much of a good thing, but now I can listen to it with ease, but it's certainly not one of my favorite Strauss works and I actually prefer Symphonia Domestica to Ein Heldenleben. Interesting choice of the Violin Concerto and Burleske --- both are early works, but they do have some fine music within them. Til Eulenspiegel is, of course, an utter delight.

[Wanderer]

Salome
Elektra
Don Quixote
Vier letzte Lieder
Deutsche Motette

I'm keeping my initial five (a perfect list, if I say so; ) and am adding five more.

Eine Alpensinfonie
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Symphonia Domestica (& Parergon zur Symphonia Domestica)
Burleske
Also sprach Zarathustra

Guilty pleasure option: Festliches Präludium

[MusicTurner]

4 Letzte Lieder
Burleske
Till Eulenspiegel
Metamorphosen
Salome

[bhodges]

So hard!

Vier letzte Lieder - I mean, one of the greatest works by anybody.
Salome - Though it begins rather calmly, 90 minutes of increasing decay and horror.
Elektra - One year at the Met, I saw this four times. What a ride.
Eine Alpensinfonie - My first encounter was live, with von Karajan and Berlin at Carnegie in the late 1980s. Though others since have been marvelous, I will never forget that evening (which began with Stravinsky's Apollo).
Lieder - How can you choose? So I'm cheating and choosing "all of them." 

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

I'm keeping my initial five (a perfect list, if I say so; ) and am adding five more.

Eine Alpensinfonie
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Symphonia Domestica (& Parergon zur Symphonia Domestica)
Burleske
Also sprach Zarathustra

Guilty pleasure option: Festliches Präludium

All fine works, Wanderer.

P. S. I'm not sure if you saw my Skalkottas purchases, but I can say that I'm enjoying some of what I've heard, although I can only say that, so far, I haven't enjoyed the Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, but this work was orchestrated by someone else and I haven't heard it in its original incarnation yet. But, hopefully, in due course.

[ritter]

....

I'm still getting to know Ariadne auf Naxos.

Do let us know what your final verdict on Ariadne is, John. I really like the piece (have seen it twice live); it's great fun, has some wonderful music, and a superb libretto. But the there's other opinions: Stravinsky famously wrote "Ariadne makes me want to scream!". 

[Mirror Image]

Do let us know what your final verdict on Ariadne is, John. I really like the piece (have seen it twice live); it's great fun, has some wonderful music, and a superb libretto. But the there's other opinions: Stravinsky famously wrote "Ariadne makes me want to scream!". 

Oh, I love Ariadne from first-listen, but I just need to get more familiar with the way its structured, the musical language, etc. It is written in a more Neoclassical style much like Arabella or Capriccio for example.

[Brian]

Vier letzte Lieder - I mean, one of the greatest works by anybody.

Agreed!

Vier letzte Lieder
Eine Alpensinfonie (what a smash live - just before the pandemic I got my parents up here to see it live and they were just knocked out by it)
Don Juan (sucker for French horns! Do not listen to any recording with fewer than eight!)
Oboe Concerto (first vote for this)

A year or two I might have said Burleske for #5, but I'm starting to get to know and I like Don Quixote quite a lot, and then there's the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, or that thing with the Nietzsche novel and the space odyssey. Or literally any of the other orchestral songs. Do not know the operas yet.

Let's say Zarathustra for #5.

I actually prefer Symphonia Domestica to Ein Heldenleben.

Agreed. Ein Heldenleben...woof, that's a difficult listen for me. At least Domestica has some humor on the way.

[Mirror Image]

Agreed!

Vier letzte Lieder
Eine Alpensinfonie (what a smash live - just before the pandemic I got my parents up here to see it live and they were just knocked out by it)
Don Juan (sucker for French horns! Do not listen to any recording with fewer than eight!)
Oboe Concerto (first vote for this)

A year or two I might have said Burleske for #5, but I'm starting to get to know and I like Don Quixote quite a lot, and then there's the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, or that thing with the Nietzsche novel and the space odyssey. Or literally any of the other orchestral songs. Do not know the operas yet.

Let's say Zarathustra for #5.
Agreed. Ein Heldenleben...woof, that's a difficult listen for me. At least Domestica has some humor on the way.

Some nice picks. I love the Oboekonzert, too and I was going to pick it, but the Hornkonzert Nr. 2 took ahold of me recently. You should definitely get to know the operas, Brian. I loved Strauss before, but I love him even more now since I started exploring his operas, which started about 2-3 years ago. You mentioned the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, but you've got to hear the whole opera --- I think you'll enjoy it. Yes, Eine Alpensinfonie packs a punch, indeed. It was the first work I heard from Strauss and remains a favorite of mine to this day.

[Daverz]

The works I come back to most often:

Don Quixote
Ein Heldenleben
Alpine Symphony
Also Sprach Zarathrustra
Don Juan and Till, of course.

I have an embarrassing number of recordings of these warhorses.  I haven't really gotten into the operas.  I was deeply impressed with Elektra, purely as music (Solti recording), but can't say it's a staple in my listening.

On the lighter side, I only recently discovered the two Sonatines, wind serenades in all but name:

Sonatine No.1, Aus der Werkstatt eines Invaliden (From the Workshop of an Invalid), for 16 wind instruments
Sonatine No.2, Fröhliche Werkstatt (Cheerful Workshop) for 16 Wind Instruments

There's a Hyperion "dyad" set with recordings of both works.



https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA66731/2   

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So hard!

Vier letzte Lieder - I mean, one of the greatest works by anybody.
Salome - Though it begins rather calmly, 90 minutes of increasing decay and horror.
Elektra - One year at the Met, I saw this four times. What a ride.
Eine Alpensinfonie - My first encounter was live, with von Karajan and Berlin at Carnegie in the late 1980s. Though others since have been marvelous, I will never forget that evening (which began with Stravinsky's Apollo).
Lieder - How can you choose? So I'm cheating and choosing "all of them." 

--Bruce

Great stuff, Bruce. All fine works including all of the lieder.

[aligreto]

A wonderful set indeed.