Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]
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Composer: Richard StraussConductor: Fritz Reiner
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
CD Release Date: 2004-09-14
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
- Sunrise - Fritz Reiner
- Of The People Of The Unseen World - Fritz Reiner
- Of The Great Longing - Fritz Reiner
- Of Joys And Passions - Fritz Reiner
- Dirge - Fritz Reiner
- Of Science - Fritz Reiner
- The Convalescent - Fritz Reiner
- Dance Song And Night Song - Fritz Reiner
- Night Wanderer's Song - Fritz Reiner
- The Hero - John Weicher
- The Hero's Adversaries - John Weicher
- The Hero's Companion - John Weicher
- The Hero's Battlefield - John Weicher
- The Hero's Works Of Peace - John Weicher
- The Hero's Retreat From The World And Fulfillment - John Weicher
Free Music Notes for Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]
Free Music Review: Reiner, The Chicago, and the Rest of the World in Richard Strauss
Hit: 5 Stars
In response to the one reviewer, Mr. Stenroos, who doesn't hear what everyone else does and much prefers Karajan in this music I thought an overview of this Reiner versus Karajan business might be enlightening.
To begin with the sound quality of the recordings, an important matter in this case. Differences in performance were accentuated (exaggerated might not be too strong a word) by the very different recording philosophies of the American RCA and German DG sound engineers.
Many American music critics of the 60's and 70's disliked Karajan DG issues, which they found mannered, while the sound to American critics was usually described in unflattering terms; cut off, or flattened by excessive filtering. These very real problems were largely ignored by the European press, in particular the writers of the highly influential Gramophone magazine, which at times waxed so loudly and consistently in praise of Karajan the magazine sounded like a DG house organ. This marked split between American and British critics on Karajan carried over into performance, something I'll discuss below; ironically some of the best sound Karajan ever received was not from DG, but Britain's EMI.
Apparently some of this has sunk into the current corporate decision-makers at DG; recent DG reissues on CD of Karajan and others appear to have gone back to the original tapes with frequently noticeable improvement on the CDs over the original slick and lifeless - read airless - DG LP recordings.
It should be noted this was a DG and Philips problem - recordings made by Telefunken, for example of the Berlin under Keilberth, are superior to the contemporaneous DG recordings. Listen to Keilberth in the Beethoven 7th, or any of the 1950's EMI recordings of Andre Cluytens leading the BPO in Beethoven. These later, in both mono and stereo, give an indication of how during the next several decades DG engineers would travel very far indeed from the fresh and airy soundstage of early analogue stereo.
Digital recordings of Karajan, though more up-to-date, have other issues. It's also enlightening that when Karajan recorded the first CD of an orchestra work he chose Strauss' Alpine Symphony, a showy but frankly banal choice to ring in such a now universal medium.
Reiner's sound by contrast was far more natural sounding, the hallmark of the magnificent recordings made by the early stereo engineers in America. These were the result of a decade and a half of careful testing and comparison. John Pfeiffer (see RCA Victor CD, the Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John PfeifferThe Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John Pfeiffer) had shown his creativity earlier, utilizing the film industry's technical resources to make remarkably advanced recordings of Pierre Monteux and the San Francisco in the 40's. RCA engineers had also taken a stab at Koussevitsky's famous reading of Also Sprach with the Boston Symphony. Sadly, although this was praised in its day for fidelity, the marvelous sounds of this queen of orchestras remain muted.
When RCA's engineers set forth to try Also Sprach again, this time with Reiner's Chicago Orchestra, RCA's engineers had several advantages.
1) The LP process, just introduced at the end of the 40's, was now largely perfected.
2) Enormous advances such as the tape recorder created by war time necessities gave RCA engineers far better equipment.
3) The friendly but intense competition between Mercury engineers, who had produced outstanding monuaral recordings of Kublik with Chicago added to the fire and served as a benchmark.
4) The Chicago symphony all but owned Also Sprach on records; of the first three tries, two were made in Chicago, the last and most recent a fine performance by Artur Rodzinski.
5) And most important, the unique genius of the RCA team, which, when added to the marvel of the new stereo process, completely opened out the soundstage, and produced new revolutionary recordings. These night and day improvements over the old '78s of just a dozen years before remain among the high points of recorded history.
However, as has been correctly pointed how by several reviewers, the Reiner recordings did have issues. The organ was one, and in certain sections where a great deal is going on the Reiner recordings fall a bit short. It is difficult to say how much of this is the conductor and how much the medium. For example, recording sound or choice of orchestra does not wholly explain Kempe's unrivalled gift for balancing the multiplicity of thematic strands Strauss backs up like so many freight cars.
The Hybrid SACD over the regular issue.
There have been many incarnations of the Reiner performances on CD. This most recent shows this Hybrid format SACD something of a bucking bronco, with even more punch and vibrancy tan the previous regular CD. This gives a rather wild quality, with certain orchestra sounds seemingly bursting the soundstage, this aspect is more noticeable when contrasted with sweeter strings than previous CD issues. The soundstage appears deeper, and a comparison with the original LP shows the reissue engineers clearly took into consideration the very 'bloomy' sounds heard on the original tapes. I can only wonder what reviewer Zeidler must have felt on experiencing his first hearing of stereo in a demonstration of this music using 30 inches per second Ampex tape machines!!! The brilliant "you were there" review he wrote is testimony to the lasting impact of Reiner's recording heard in all its pristine glory.
As analogue recording was replaced with digital, just as vacuum tubes had a decade before been replaced with transistors, the old recordings were largely considered passe and outdated. It was only through the energy and conviction of a small number of believers that they were finally revisited by a significant number of music lovers. Some people still prefer the older recordings, though I suspect a majority will never have a chance, unlike Mr. Zeidler, to hear first hand just what these issues offer. However, RCA's issuance of this and other of these special recordings in a Hybrid format is a huge boost and great opportunity. The prices are beyond fair - they are an open invitation and one which I hope will encourage far more people than ever before to hear these magical legendary performances. Too, with access to the original tapes many of the limitations imposed on the earlier LP recordings are no longer an issue in the CD format. Recordings universally disliked for harsh sound, such as many made by Szell and the Cleveland orchestra, fine Straussians, have been radically improved through release on SACD. Others such as these Hybrid SACDs of Reiner and Chicago offer features unavailable in the original releases. Qualities of performance previously assigned to conductors such as Szell, such as a disinterest in such things as color or svelte and dulcet tone, now appear partially the fault of recordings limitations. Szell Columbia recordings revisited through SACD come across with a palpable degree of gemutlichkeit, a quality utterly absent and unrecognized in the originals. Perhaps some of the criticism of Karajan, such as found in the comment of Mr. Bass, may be adjusted as we hear the newer reissues.
As for styles, Reiner was not just a feared martinet, but also a man of the theater, and like Mitropoulos brought to his conducting an active and obvious immediacy. This flair for whipping up excitement is on display in many excerpts we have of Reiner as conductor in the two early avant-garde Strauss operas, Salome and Elektra. It's impossible to hear these without falling prey to such adjectives as,"incadescent", or electrifying", or "white heat". Reiner in Salome can be quite over the top when compared to Karajan, who conducts the work in a more paced and deliberate fashion. Karajan was equally no stranger to the opera house, but in contrast to Reiner built up excitement through scale and weight. Karajan also tended to treat musical lines with less tension; Karajan was a devotee of very long almost Bellini-inspired melodies, captured with great conductorial skill in the spinning-out of long held pedal points - which he used to great effect in Bruckner. Karajan was equally at home showcasing pretty and decorative trimmings, with all the Straussian glitter, noticably in Der Rosenkavalier. In a work like Salome Karajan and Reiner both fully tapped into the the music's sinister tweaking of harmony, though I personally appreciate Karajan's more subtle reading, I'd rather hear Reiner leading Lubja Weltisch. In Heldenleben each brought out the mock-heroic without sacrifying what was genuine, but here again Reiner shows an unwillingness to slow down and enjoy the moment. In the recordings of this work I largely concur with the thoughts of reviewer vanDeSande. However, neither condcutor's performance on Cd matches an astonishing tour performance of massive power and majestic string playing I heard of Ein Helenleben under Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra - there's always room for a new hearing!
American critics, perhaps in an attempt to separate themselves from their British cousins, reacted harshly against many Karajan recordings. Indeed they fell over themselves in wonder at Haitink's Philips recording of Also Sprach - you can look it up. Karajan and Reiner were set on the shelf. Yet many of the same critics who did not like Karajan records wrote very positive reviews of Karajan concerts in New York, in his appearances either on tour, or as a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic. The anti-Karajan writing was also a product of doubts surrounding his background during the war - a major reason Furtwangler never came to America, and Chicago in particular. Further, matters were not helped by a general contempt by many American critics for the music of Bruckner, who Karajan championed instead of the then newly popular Mahler. Bernstein's identification with Mahler and Karajan's apparent distaste for Mahler - as he obviously had the clout to record whatever he wished - added fuel to such fires. As witnessed in the comments we are still settling some of these old scores.
The mention of Kempe also must be addressed, for he brought different attributes to Strauss. Unlike Clemens Krauss, who did not live long enough to build up a library of stereo recordings, Kempe made many fine recordings in stereo. Like Karajan he found a way to bring out the inner lines, but did so by covering the music in a sort of reverential hush, rather than more usual bawdy overstatements of most conductors. Listening to Kempe in Strauss I often wonder if this is how Richard Strauss would sound at Bayreuth, with its covered orchestra pit, the sound floating and enveloping rather than aggressively directed. Kempe preferred to win you over in Strauss by forcing you to listen more carefully - possible when the decibels were kept down. These qualities certainly were not what one found in recordings of Strauss by the dynamic Solti or even Bohm. Bohm in particular must be singled out for his unequalled magic in bringing out the various orchestra colors of a Strauss tone poem or opera. I heard him several times and this was true as well in concert.
In regard to the comments about the orchestra playing of the Chicago Symphony.
Having heard the Chicago play Strauss on several occasions under different conductors, including one of the most memorable concerts of my life, Don Quixote under Solti heard from the front seat of a center box, I don't know where to start with the negative comments of Mr. Stenroos. On records and in person this orchestra defines the word distinquished. What orchestra(s) in America does Mr. Stenroos consider first rate? Over my lifetime I've been privileged to hear them all, and quite often, and frankly find his comments about Chicago mystifying. Indeed, when Richard Strauss visited Chicago and led the orchestra as quest conductor in his own music at the turn of the 20th century, he had nothing but the most effusive praise for the band. Nothing I have heard in person or on record suggests their modern counterparts deserve anything less.
IMPORTANT NOTE: After writing this review I went to the Chicago Symphony program archives - there you can find a wealth of historical details about Also Sprach and the Chicago Symphony. Earliest American performance - recordings, etc. A must read! Just search - "Chicago Symphony Orchestra Program Notes Strauss Also Sprach".
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