COMPOSERS: Strauss
LABELS: Karussell Belart
WORKS: Also sprach Zarathustra; Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegel
PERFORMER: Boston SO/William Steinberg; Berlin PO/Karl Böhm
CATALOGUE NO: 450 116-2 ADD (1971/63)
Belart should have licensed Böhm’s Zarathustra from Deutsche Grammophon, rather than Steinberg’s for consistency’s sake as well as a firmer claim on the bargain market. Steinberg’s treatment of the Nietzschean tone poem proceeds in fits and starts against a cavernous acoustic that suits Strauss’s starrier moments but never allows his waltzing Superman to emerge into the light. Böhm’s heroes are clean-cut, well-balanced characters, though his Till Eulenspiegel is rather poker-faced – a Prussian rather than a Bavarian rogue. David Nice
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegel
Belart should have licensed Böhm’s Zarathustra from Deutsche Grammophon, rather than Steinberg’s for consistency’s sake as well as a firmer claim on the bargain market. Steinberg’s treatment of the Nietzschean tone poem proceeds in fits and starts against a cavernous acoustic that suits Strauss’s starrier moments but never allows his waltzing Superman to emerge into the light. Böhm’s heroes are clean-cut, well-balanced characters, though his Till Eulenspiegel is rather poker-faced – a Prussian rather than a Bavarian rogue. David Nice
Our rating
2
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:32 pm