Richard Strauss's house

[vers la flamme]

Why did Offenbach have to catch a stray bullet there I'll confess that I don't know the Domestica very well, though I have two recordings of it. Perhaps I'll hear it again soon.

A Strauss work that I've been enjoying lately is the Oboe Concerto, prompted by my purchase of this excellent CD:



Very beautiful. I like Strauss's "Indian Summer" works of the postwar era.

[Maestro267]

I'd say because Domestica is egotistical as hell but then so is Ein Heldenleben. Still fantastic music though, on both counts.

[Roasted Swan]

I am not sure why Symphonia Domestica isn't played more often. It's noisy which might make it be considered as overblown but it's not as bad as Gaîté Parisienne.

SO easy to mix the two up......

[lordlance]

I was comparing the bombast of Domestica with Parisienne. Something even worse would be Stokowski's Aurora's Wedding Ballet Music - an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty - which is probably the worst bombastic piece of music I've heard. Parisienne gets grating so I have never finished it. Point is Symphonia Domestica isn't that bad.

Also I don't think the average concertgoing audience would mind a raucous piece at all. It might fare well.

[relm1]

Stokowski's Aurora ballet

What work??  You mean Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty??

[lordlance]

What work??  You mean Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty??

Edited for clarity.

[Roasted Swan]

What work??  You mean Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty??

Aurora's Wedding is in effect just Act III of Sleeping Beauty.  It was Diaghilev who chopped that act from the complete ballet.  A notable feature of the original score is the different instrumentation Tchaikovsky used for that act.  I don't know to what degree Stokowski tweaked that scoring - probably a bit as was his want but I don't get a sense that it was major reconstructive surgery.  So if you find the ASct bomastic probably blame Tchaik not Stowky

[lordlance]

Doing an orchestralsurvey of Strauss of sorts:

1. Symphonia Domestica:

a. Zinman/Tonhalle Zurich

Zinman conducts the piece to the point of being underwhelming. Almost feels rushing it. Not good. More troubling though, about 10:00 in the last movement, the music reaches a cathartic climax and you're thinking it's all going to end gloriously. But no he just doodles for two minutes afterwards. Feels like a rock band riffing too long. It just sounds like not knowing when to end. There's the unorthodox effect of what sounds like a clothwasher (?) in those last 3 minutes. But then the actual climax happens which is actually rather short. The last huzzah. And that is no match for what happened at minute 10. Dave might be right about Strauss not knowing how to end his pieces.

b. Mehta/BPO (Digital Concert Hall)

Rather unsurprisingly it's much better executed. BPO outclass Zurich. Rich sound. Not rushed. At the same spot as Zinman in the last movement (10:00), I knew the piece wasn't going to end so I was better prepared. I thought this isn't so bad. But nope then it kept going 3 or 4 times after I thought it would end. Yet again in noodling territory. Sigh.

II. Der Rosenkavalier Suite

a. Thielemann/BPO (Digital Concert Hall)
I have heard the piece multiple times and always felt lukewarm about it. The Thielemann doesn't change that. The long lyrical? middle part doesn't do much for me honestly (like most lyrical sections    )

[Maestro267]

Neeme Järvi has the best Domestica by a country mile.

[Roasted Swan]

Neeme Järvi has the best Domestica by a country mile.

Jarvi's Domestica is pretty special - it suits his 'give it both barrels' style and is recorded in vintage Chandos DDD sound.  But there are many other fine versions too I think - Szell's Cleveland recording on CBS/Sony is pretty terrifying in terms of how they play but Karajan on EMI - famous trumpet splat and all - is no slouch either let alone Reiner in Chicago.  In the company of these titans Zinman in Zurich does sound rather weedy in every regard.