Strauss, R: Der Rosenkavalier - Suite

Listening now to this album one regrets that Sir John Barbirolli’s appearances in the opera house were so few. After all, though he himself was born in London his family was steeped in the Italian operatic tradition: before leaving Italy both his father and grandfather had been members of the orchestra at La Scala, Milan (along with a young cellist named Arturo Toscanini), and in 1887 they had played in the premiere of Verdi’s Otello. By the age of 25 he was appearing at the head of his own orchestra. His potential was quickly recognised by Frederic Austin of the British National Opera Company, who engaged him on the spot. Over the next seven years, either for BNOC or at Covent Garden (where he first appeared in 1928) Barbirolli conducted Aida, Falstaff, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La bohème, Tosca, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, The Barber of Seville, Romeo and Juliet, Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni, The Bartered Bride, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger, Der Rosenkavalier and The Wreckers.

The Barbirolli years after 1933 were filled by orchestral appointments and it was not until 1951 that he was able to return to Covent Garden. Over the next three seasons he was prominent there conducting old favourites such as Turandot, Aida, La bohème and Madama Butterfly, and adding to them Tristan und Isolde and Orpheus and Eurydice. At the time it was widely thought that Barbirolli might take over at Covent Garden, but his orchestral responsibilities had become all-consuming and in fact after the 1953-4 season he never appeared there again. His love of operatic music remained as strong as ever, though, and found its outlet in concert performances of complete operas and evenings of operatic excerpts. Such events became popular and, on account of Barbirolli’s prestige, would draw huge crowds. Some of these carried into the recording studio: the present album is a fine souvenir of his devoted approach to his beloved Puccini. But he was not now seen in any opera house. Only in his last decade did he find time to conduct Aida in Rome, and to make commercial recordings of Madama Butterfly, Otello and Dido and Aeneas.

Since 2003, Mariss Jansons has been the Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. With him, the orchestra has experienced one of the most successful phases in its history, not least through its sixth place ranking in Gramophone magazine’s Best Orchestras in the World list.

“His music has been my constant companion throughout my life and has moved me very deeply time and again”, said Mariss Jansons of Richard Strauss. The program on this CD comprises three of Strauss’s best-known compositions, starting with the Rosenkavalier Suite then moving on to the colourful spectacle of Till Eulenspiegel all the way to the Four Last Songs. Here, Mariss Jansons brings one of the most celebrated sopranos of recent times together with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor since 2003 led the Symphonieorchester through one of the most successful phases of its history.

Three of the most popular works by Richard Strauss.

Anja Harteros, the celebrated star on the current operatic horizon, as soloist in the Four Last Songs.

What Ein Heldenleben needs is not only a first-class orchestra but also a conductor with a clear sense of the work's underlying structure, a conductor, moreover, who is able to maintain the tension and respond quickly and consistently to the work's countless details.This is certainly how Andris Nelsons sees his task, a task which he realises magnificently in this, his second ORFEO recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.The orchestra and its music director allow the orchestral colours to gleam, and ensure that the individual sections which make up the score flow smoothly, sweeping the listener along with them.This reading of Ein Heldenleben has such stringency and rigour that many of the aesthetic objections to the work merely add to our pleasure at individual details, while never calling into question the piece's overall design. The fact that Nelsons is also a master of the art of transition in the music theatre and can achieve this on the concert platform, too, is clear from his recording of the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, which under Nelsons' direction becomes spontaneously compelling and coherent, and in which the CBSO clearly take pleasure.

Stephen Maddock, the CBSO's chief executive, says: "At a time when record labels are reducing their commitment to the core symphonic repertoire, we're delighted to have found in Orfeo a partner who is showing this level of commitment to Andris and the CBSO. In this way we can bring what we are sure will be outstanding accounts of composers who are very close to Andris's heart - and who have mostly not featured until now in the CBSO's large discography - to the widest possible international audience".

To give renewed life to two of his less well known scores, the fantasy opera Die Frau ohne Schatten and the biblical ballet Josephs-Legende, Richard Strauss created symphonic memoires which preserved both their storylines and musical highlights.

Following the phenomenal success of his ‘comedy for music’ Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss prepared an orchestral suite based on the florid waltzes of his most famous opera.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta has recorded several acclaimed discs for Naxos, including a double Grammy®-winning CD of John Corigliano’s Mr Tambourine Man (8559331).