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Richard Strauss - The Last Concerts

£10.87

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Label: Testament

Cat No: SBT21441

Barcode: 0749677144128

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 1st December 2008

Works

Strauss, Richard

Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra
Don Juan, op.20
Sinfonia domestica, op.53 TrV209
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op.28

Artists

Alfred Blumen (piano)
Philharmonia Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Richard Strauss

Works

Strauss, Richard

Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra
Don Juan, op.20
Sinfonia domestica, op.53 TrV209
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op.28

Artists

Alfred Blumen (piano)
Philharmonia Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Richard Strauss

About

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