Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Richard Strauss likely will remain best known for his lush and thundering tone poems, written when he was considered a leading avant-gardist. However, as he approached his 50th year his muse turned to more genteel topics, and Strauss became the composer-laureate of the refined bourgeois life. Fittingly, this stage of his career began with a decade-long infatuation with Molière's Le bourgeois gentilhomme. The classic French play inspired a set of incidental music, two versions of one of his most charming operas (Ariadne auf Naxos), a ballet score bearing Molière's title in German
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translation, and this suite, drawn from the ballet.
This PentaTone Classics SACD removes all uncertainty from the choice. You have to go all the way back to Fritz Reiner to find recorded performances with such lapidary delicacy and precision, and by exceeding Reiner in the wit and charm category, Paavo Järvi makes the music sparkle that much more. PentaTone's sonics bring out the best points of the music as a top-line jeweler showcases diamonds.
There are two more performances on this disc to gush over. The little-known Duet-concertino, for clarinet, bassoon and string orchestra with harp, dates from the post-war years of the Four Last Songs and has similar autumnal magic. Soloists Nicole Kern and Higinio Arrué are everything we could wish for. The disc concludes with the ravishing Sextet from Strauss' final completed opera, Capriccio, also played in exemplary fashion, its warmth leaving the listener with a satisfied glow.
I've mentioned the sound quality in general, however this is a rare SACD where the stereo and multi-channel versions make equally natural impressions. The surround-sound is discrete and mainly serves to solidify the location of the instruments spread across the sound stage, an effect that serves particularly well in the Duet-concertino.
– Joseph Stevenson, ClassicsToday.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60 by Richard Strauss
Performer:
Daniel Sepec ()
Conductor:
Paavo Järvi
Orchestra/Ensemble:
German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen
Period: Romantic
Written: 1912; Germany
Venue: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany
Length: 35 Minutes 30 Secs.
Notes: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany (07/07/2003 - 07/13/2003)
2.
Duet-Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon, Strings and Harp, AV 147 by Richard Strauss
Performer:
Higinio Arrué (Bassoon),
Nicole Kern (Clarinet)
Conductor:
Paavo Järvi
Orchestra/Ensemble:
German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen
Period: Romantic
Written: 1947; Germany
Venue: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany
Length: 18 Minutes 18 Secs.
Notes: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany (07/07/2003 - 07/13/2003)
3.
Capriccio, Op. 85: Prelude by Richard Strauss
Conductor:
Paavo Järvi
Orchestra/Ensemble:
German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen
Period: Romantic
Written: 1940-1941; Germany
Venue: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany
Length: 11 Minutes 22 Secs.
Notes: Grosser Sendesaal, Radio Bremen, Germany (07/07/2003 - 07/13/2003)
Sound Samples
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: I. Ouverture (Overture)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: II. Menuett
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: III. Der Fechtmeister (The Fencing Master)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: IV. Auftritt and Tanz der Schneider ( Entrance and Dance of the Tailors)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: V. Das Menuett des Lully (Lully's Minuet)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: VI. Courante
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: VII. Auftritt des Cleonte (Entrance of Cleonte)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: VIII. Vorspiel zum 2. Aufzug (Prelude to Act II)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Burger als Edelmann) Suite, Op. 60, TrV 228c: IX. Das Diner (The Dinner)
Duett-Concertino, TrV 293: I. Allegro moderato
Duett-Concertino, TrV 293: II. Andante
Duett-Concertino, TrV 293: III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
Capriccio, Op. 85, TrV 279: Sextett
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