Strauss, R: Sinfonia Domestica, Op. 53

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.

In 1961, the visiting orchestra to Salzburg was the Dresden Staatskapelle. The 'magic harp', as it was known, certainly justified its reputation under Franz Konwitschny, who confirmed his own standing as one of the leading representatives of the traditionally 'heavy' style of music-making in the German Classical and Romantic repertory.

Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony was notable for its powerful contrast between darker and lighter orchestral sonorities, and much the same was true of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major K 488, in which the soloist was no less a luminary than Friedrich Gulda, whose playing was remarkable for its subtly contoured interaction with the orchestra but who was also able to bring to the piece a note of virtuosity and, in the Adagio, an overriding calm.

The Staatskapelle’s concert under Konwitschny ended with Strauss’s 'Sinfonia domestica': a vast portrait of the Strauss family drawing on the orchestra’s full palette of tone colours.

Richard Strauss’s orchestral music includes several works with autobiographical significance, including Ein Heldenleben (Naxos 8554417).

Scored for large symphony orchestra, the Symphonia domestica depicts the delights and vicissitudes of married life with Strauss, his wife, child and other family members deftly portrayed in a variety of situations, including a ‘cheerful quarrel’ in which the father has the last word!

In contrast, Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings is Strauss’s heartbreaking meditation on the destruction of German culture during World War II.

The festival of Richard Strauss’s music held in London during October 1947 was the result of a joint initiative by Sir Thomas Beecham and Ernst Roth, Richard Strauss’s publisher at Boosey & Hawkes. A vital part of this initiative was the presence of the composer himself. Strauss and his wife were then living as impoverished exiles in Switzerland: UK performance royalties on the composer’s work had been frozen during the war, but if he came to England he could collect those royalties and gather new payments for performances of his music – and he could also earn a good fee if he conducted. The festival opened with two concerts at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Beecham, in the presence of an approving Strauss. Beecham also conducted two concert performances of the opera Elektra at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios, again with a very satisfied composer in attendance. Important events these may have been, but the highlight of the festival was a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on the Sunday evening of 19 October, in which Strauss himself conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in a programme of three works, Don Juan, the Burleske for piano and orchestra and the Sinfonia domestica, with a new symphonic arrangement of the waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier as an encore. It is said that Strauss wanted to conduct his Alpine Symphony, and that the huge instrumental forces required in this work made it economically impossible, but he would have been content with the choice of the Sinfonia domestica, since its homespun subject matter made it a favourite among his own works. This too needed a large orchestra, and well-known extra players from other London orchestras were recruited for the occasion, including the Royal Philharmonic’s clarinettist, Jack Brymer. For the Burleske Strauss chose the little-known pianist Alfred Blumen as soloist. Blumen had worked with Strauss on several occasions over a period of many years, notably in a long tour of South America with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1923, during which they gave performances of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in addition to the Burleske. Now living in Britain, Blumen had also fallen on hard times, and Strauss wanted his old colleague to earn a concert fee.

Extract from the note Alan Sanders, 2008

The re-launch of the RLPO label in conjunction with Avie Records included this two-CD set of works by the titan of late Romanticism, Richard Strauss. Music Director Gerard Schwarz excels in this repertoire, conducting two personal, programmatic tone poems – An Alpine Symphony exploring the composer’s mountainous adventures, and the Sinfonia Domestica which evokes his family life. By contrast, two late works for winds feature RLPO principals Jonathan Small in Strauss’s late Oboe Concerto, and clarinettist Nicholas Cox and bassoonist Alan Pendlebury in the Duet Concertino. While An Alpine Symphony was previous available, the other three works are new to the RLPO discography.