STRAUSS SKD BOHM - OPERA SCENES CD

SKU/Barcode: 881488703955

Profil's Richard Strauss: Scenes of Operas, which constitutes Vol. 18 in its Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, documents one of the happiest collaborations between a composer and a conductor in history -- the relationship between Strauss and conductor Karl B hm during the latter's tenure as conductor of the Dresden Semperoper, which lasted from 1934 until 1943. B hm gave the premieres of Strauss' late operas Die schweigsame frau (1935) and Daphne (1938) in Dresden; there is nothing from Die schweigsame frau here, as the Jewish ethnicity of the libretto's author, Stefan Zweig, caused it to be banned after just eight performances. Three excerpts from Daphne were commercially recorded in 1938, and these are represented here; some collectors deep into historic Strauss opera recordings may know them already, in addition to the 1938-1940 excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier that also help fill out the program. These works are not the main attraction here so much as lengthy excerpts from Die Frau ohne Schatten and Arabella, taken from the archives of German Radio; these were originally recorded on early German magnetophon machines (i.e., tape recordings) in 1942 and feature such vocalists as soprano Margarete Teschemacher and tenor Torsten Ralf. Excerpts from these performances were issued in a 1991 Berlin Classics' release entitled Grosse S nger der Semperoper Berlin; the excerpt from Die Frau ohne Schatten lasted 14:19 and that from Arabella only 6:20. The excerpts here run 21:40 for Die Frau ohne Schatten and 23:52 for Arabella -- that's a big difference. So is the quality of sound, which is excellent for the commercially issued recordings and very good for the magnetophon tapes; apart from an occasional grittiness heard on the voices, the tapes are quite listenable and Profil has managed to restore them without exposing any hiss. There are listeners who feel strongly that German opera recordings from this period should be shunned like the plague and still others who have had reason to question B hm's possible complicity with the then-governing Nazi Party. Profil's Richard Strauss: Scenes of Operas comes with a handsomely illustrated 40-page booklet that contains scrupulous documentation on most aspects of the Strauss/B hm collaboration in Dresden. Although the notes are presented in a typeface that's a bit smaller than what is comfortable to read, and this text has to contend with design elements in the background of the pages, the impression one comes away with is that the Nazi Party served as a major distraction and annoyance to both artists. Such revelations may not be enough for some to overcome their distaste for this item, but the sound is terrific throughout, as are the performances, and it is nothing short of amazing that Strauss and B hm still managed to mount great opera productions even as the society in which they both lived was crumbling around them.