“The score is frighteningly difficult. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra we took many long, painstaking rehearsals and arranged many concerts to overcome the enormous difficulties of recording this music. We believe that Josephs Legende is a beautiful, rich, especially lyrical work that deserves to be accepted among Richard Strauss' best compositions. I am very greatful to all musicians who took part in this extremely demanding undertaking for their devotion and dedicated playing.” Iván Fischer
Josephs Legende
A vast pillared hall in the Palladian style...
Kneeling at Potiphar's wife's feet ...
The slave with the gems ...
The slave with the carpet ...
The slave with the two white greyhounds
Potiphar's arrogance ...
Procession & dance of the women ...
The wedding dance of the women
First figure of the dance
Second figure of the dance
Unclothing the veiled women
Third figure of the dance
Unveiled women pace...
The dance of Sulamith
Sulamith's dance ends
Potiphar's wife's reaction
The procession of men
Dance of the boxers
Dance of the boxers
The boxing begins
Frenzied fighting
Potiphar intervenes
Presentation of sleeping Joseph
Joseph awakens
The dance of Joseph; first figure
The dance of Joseph; four leaps in four cardinal directions
The dance of Joseph; third figure
The dance of Joseph; search for God
The dance of Joseph; fourth figure
End of Joseph's dance
Potiphar's wife notices Joseph
Potiphar's wife & Joseph
The pillared hall is emptied ...
Evening falls ... Joseph alone ...
Joseph alone ...
Potiphar's wife arrives ...
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
The attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife
Joseph is held by the servants
Potiphar's wife faints
Slave girls rush in
First figure of the mourning dance
Second figure of the mourning dance, black magic
Joseph stands motionless
Potiphar arrives...Joseph is taken away
Potiphar and his wife...Joseph's coat is given to Potiphar's wife
She holds the coat absentmindedly
The slave girl stands
Potiphar's anger
The passion of Potiphar's wife
Torture is prepared ...
Joseph is saved by the Archangel
A star begins to shine behibd the pillared hall
A ray of light comes from the star
The archangel appears
The angel touches Joseph
The angel takes Joseph by the hand
Potiphar's wife strangles herself ...
Potiphar's wife falls back dead
The women of Potiphar's wife mourn ...
The funeral procession of Potiphar's wife
Joseph and the archangel disappear...
July 2007
“Iván Fischer and the enlarged Budapest Festival Orchestra give a magnificent account of the work, readily going over the sensual top when Strauss demands it, but with Fischer ensuring that Strauss's underlying lyrical flow moves seamlessly but erotically onwards to the final climax. This is surely a work for sumptuous surround sound, which is exactly what the Channel Classics recording team provide, and very impressively, too.”
2010
“Richard Strauss's Josephslegende (1914) is a truly extraordinary work. It was written for Diaghilev, who wanted something sensational to follow The Rite ofSpring. But Nijinsky was unable to take the titlerole planned for him, and it was the young Massine as substitute who had to dance what Nijinsky later described as 'undanceable music'. But Nijinsky also had an eccentric hand in the extraordinary scenario which tells of the attempted and unsuccessful seduction of Joseph by Potiphar's wife, her suicide after her failure, the attempt by the suspicious Potiphar to torture the innocent David, and his celestial rescue by an angel who frees him from his bonds. All this drew from Strauss a richly sensuous score, in many ways an amalgam of his previous successes, predominantly Salome, in the voluptuous dances of the veiled and unveiled women near the begining, climaxed by 'Sulamith's dance' of burning desire. But the spectacle of the AlpineSymphony, the passion of Don Juan, the hyperbole of Ein Heldenleben, to say nothing of a touch of Death and Transfiguration, are all mixed in. The booklet offers an elaborate cued synopsis of the narrative, so that one can relate Strauss's extraordinary score to what is being described. Iván Fischer and the enlarged Budapest Festival Orchestra give a magnificent account of the work, readily going over the sensual top when Strauss demands it, but with Fischer ensuring that Strauss's underlying lyrical flow moves seamlessly but erotically onwards to the final climax. This is surely a work for sumptuous surround sound, which is exactly what the Channel Classics recording team provide, and very impressively, too.”
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Josephs Legende
