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R Strauss - Burleske, Serenade, Tod und Verklarung | Alpha ALPHA733

R Strauss - Burleske, Serenade, Tod und Verklarung

£13.88

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Alpha

Cat No: ALPHA733

Barcode: 3760014197338

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 28th May 2021

Contents

Artists

Nelson Goerner (piano)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Conductor

Mikko Franck

Works

Strauss, Richard

Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra
Serenade in E flat major for winds, op.7
Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration), op.24

Artists

Nelson Goerner (piano)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Conductor

Mikko Franck

About

The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck continue their collaboration with Alpha and here invite one of the label’s flagship pianists, Nelson Goerner. The programme is devoted to Richard Strauss, coupling several of the German composer’s early works.

The Burleske for piano and orchestra, written at the age of twenty, is brimming with lyricism and Romantic ardour; its tone colours herald Strauss’s operas, while the orchestration anticipates his symphonic poems. The piano part is exceptionally virtuosic: Hans von Bülow, for whom Strauss wrote it, called it unplayable!

The Serenade for thirteen wind instruments harks back to Mozart’s Gran Partita K361 for similar forces. This brief work in a single movement begins in a nocturnal colouring, as befits a serenade, before growing more animated and finally returning to the contemplative atmosphere of the opening.

The symphonic poem for large orchestra Tod und Verklärung depicts the last hour of an artist’s life: the listener is gripped from the very first bars, which evoke the breathing and heartbeats of a dying man. Strauss allows us to experience his final moments and the transfiguration of his soul in one of the most glorious moments in the symphonic repertoire.

Reviews

Goerner opens with blistering energy. The opening salvos (abetted by some driving timpani interjections) are dispatched with thrilling urgency, but he also brings a lovely wistful gentleness to the more lyrical episodes and delicacy to Strauss’s more playful moments. ... The orchestra’s wind players are given a chance to shine in an affectionate account of the early Serenade, Op 7 ... which offers a welcome palate-cleanser before orchestra and conductor serve up a handsome account of Tod und Verklärung. It’s a big and generous performance in the Karajan mould ... which offers many stirring moments in sound that is pleasingly rounded and blended.  Hugo Shirley
Gramophone July 2021

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