Richard Strauss

Four great Straussian heroes (including Strauss himself), in sumptuous readings by Giuseppe Sinopoli. Also sprach Zarathustra and Tod und Verklarung receive taut, thrilling readings from the New York Philharmonic. Ein Heldenleben and Don Juan are spacious and gloriously recorded with plenty of colourful orchestral detail.

Strauss had a lifelong affair with the soprano voice, and many of his songs were written with his (reputedly shrewish) wife Pauline's voice in mind. This collection brings together five songs performed with crystalline purity by Christine Schaefer as well as some more dramatic settings performed by Karita Mattila, concluding with Mattila's reading of the immortal Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder).

Relative rarities among his output are Richard Strauss's concertos, many written later in his life. This collection brings together works for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (the Duet Concertino) and the scintillating Burleske for piano and orchestra. In addition to conducting the concertos, Ashkenazy also conducts the early tone poem "Aus Italien" and Maazel's humorous reading of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme with the Vienna Philharmonic is restored to the catalogue.

Zubin Mehta's LAPO recording of Strauss's Sinfonia Domestica has long been considered a benchmark and after a considerable absence from the catalogue reappears here, coupled with the later Parergon for piano (left hand) and orchestra. Equally celebrated is Mehta's reading of the Alpine Symphony, and the set concludes with one of Strauss's earliest tone poems, Macbeth.