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| Strauss: Orchestral Works | 
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| Creators: Wolfgang Liebscher, Manfred Weise, Richard Strauss, Rudolf Kempe, Peter Damm, Manfred Clement, Dresden Staatskapelle, Malcolm Frager, Peter Rosel, Peter Mirring, Ulf Hoelscher
Label: EMI Classics
Category: Music
List Price: $62.98
Buy New: $36.97
You Save: $26.01 (41%)
Buy New/Used from $36.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  (22 reviews)
Sales Rank: 75268
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 5.2 x 5.2 x 1.1
MPN: 73614
UPC: 724357361422
EAN: 0724357361422
ASIN: B000026D4K
Release Date: November 16, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Reviving a Lost Love August 7, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The highest praise for any conductor must be that he rekindles enthusiasm and love for music that had been recently abandoned. In his autobiography, the conductor Felix Weingartner confesses that he had grown out of touch with Strauss' music; until hearing this set, I had felt the same, with only a few exceptions. But Rudolf Kempe and his really great Staatskapelle Dresden have won me back to Richard's orchestral music. So far, I have only heard part of the set: Zarathustra, Heldenleben, Till, Tod und Verklaerung, Der Buerger als Edelmann, Don Juan, Burleske, and Sinfonia Domestica, but my appetite is whet for more. Because of the refined, subtle, and yet intense conducting of Kempe, what used to strike me as cheap and taudry now strikes me as profound and moving. And the sheer musical skill of Strauss in thematic invention and counterpoint never ceases to amaze. Kempe was truly, in my not so humble opinion, the greatest conductor of the German classics following Furtwaengler; Karajan was empty and shallow by comparison. Kempe brings to this music the same passion and dignity that he brought to Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Schumann, and other of "his" composers. To make just one comparison, Reiner's Zarathustra, once hallowed by me as by most listeners, now sounds like overripe, rotting fruit as compared to the passionate yet thoughtful quality that Kempe brings to it. The Staatskapelle Dresden, by the way, sounds like the greatest orchestra in the world, only matched by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kempe or Furtwaengler, an orchestra that produces incidentally beautiful sounds but whose main goal is the projection and characterization of the music. No virtuosity for its own sake, just musicianship, musicianship, and more musicianship. EMI's sound is the very epitome of how to record an orchestra: Impactful, yet smooth and detailed, with natural perspectives and no spotlighting. This set belongs in every music lover's library.
 Not for beginners... July 16, 2006
9 out of 23 found this review helpful
Most boxed sets have their ups and downs because no conductor is equally sympathetic to all of a composer's works. Kempe is no exception to this rule.
The masterpieces, Zarathustra, Heldenleben, and Quixote, are superb here. Kempe clarifies Strauss' complex textures in a way that other conductors like Karajan don't. Most of the time, I prefer to hear these works Karajan's way, but it's nice to hear what Kempe does with them, too. No one does Sinfonia Domestica the way Kempe does it...with such gentleness and humor. I listened to Reiner's recording for years, but I put it up for sale on amazon after I heard the Kempe. With all four of these large tone poems, Kempe and Karajan are all I really need.
The Don Juan is just about the best I've ever heard. It is so vital and exciting! Better than Karajan or any other I know. It is hard to imagine that Macbeth will ever be done better than this either. Macbeth is one of the reasons I own this set, but it's hardly one of Strauss' masterpieces. Speaking of non-masterpieces, I also treasure Kempe's recordings of Strauss' strange works for piano and orchestra. The Burleske has more poetry but less excitement than the classic Byron Janis/Reiner recording.
Kempe's recordings of the Horn Concertos are truly awful. Listen to the weak, watery tones of the first-chair horn player stepping into the solo spotlight. One listen to the mono recordings of Dennis Brain conducted by Sawallisch shows what is missing: bold, ringing tone and lots of excitement. If I only knew Kempe's recordings, I wouldn't even care about these pieces.
The bad news continues with the Oboe Concerto (weak oboist) and the charming Duet Concertino (weak bassoon).
Kempe misses the raucous fun that charges the best recordings of Till Eulenspiegel. This is a limp dishrag of a performance (until the last few minutes). At the very start of the performance, you will hear a familiar sound -- our weak horn player from the concertos playing a solo -- and you will long to stop the CD and reach for a different recording.
Metamorphosen is one of my favorite pieces by Strauss. Kempe, as is his wont, tries mightily to clarify Strauss' dense counterpoint here, and I appreciate the effort. I hear things here that I miss in other recordings. But this reading does not move me the way others have. Ormandy, to name just one. Death and Transfiguration is another one that Ormandy did better. Kempe is too fast at times! Really fast!
My greatest disappointment with this set is a recording that has been acclaimed by many as one of the greatest Strauss recordings ever made...Kempe's take on Eine Alpensinfonie. I have lived for many years with the Karajan recording, and I must say that Kempe misses many of the moments that I have come to treasure in Karajan's version. One example would be those 20 horns playing! Karajan makes this absolutely thrilling, which I'm sure is what Strauss intended. With Kempe, this telling touch by Strauss passes by unremarkably. The slow, quiet passage at the summit lacks magic. The apotheosis at the top of the mountain is certainly thrilling in Kempe's hands, but he misses too much on the way up. By the way, his cowbells sound almost comically bad. He certainly does bring out the beauty of the closing sections of the work, though.
If you are really serious about getting to know Strauss' music, this is a necessary purchase for the rarities that will probably never be done better like the Violin Concerto and the pieces I've already mentioned. If you just want Strauss' most famous works, this is a waste of your money (no matter how cheap it is!)because there's a lot of stuff here that either isn't very good or that you probably won't want to listen to that often. You would be better off buying Karajan's recordings (the 1970s recordings, not the remakes from the 80s) of the big three tone poems and then filling in the smaller ones as your interests dictate. Casual listeners will never need to hear pieces like Macbeth or the piano works that make this set so vital to Strauss-aholics like me!
One of the very best of all EMI sets! The 2nd coming for all Straussians! February 10, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The great Strauss tone poems soar to the highest level imaginable! With Kempe's genius, the lesser works become great! Kempe resists all temptation to be banal or bombastic. He directs the Staatskappele Dresden with a silken, burnished tone yet with restraint that has a radiant glow that never sacrifices the inherent capacity of the music to thrill, deeply move, or elevate to another plain. Each work played is in itself the guide: conductor and orchestra let the works deliver their own brilliance. The Don Juan and Dead and Transfiguration are soul piercing, along with Ein Heldenleben, and....... The Staatskapelle Dresden has always been an inspired ensemble and in Kempe's hands they are simply put, magnificent, delivering one thrilling performance after another. Like Wagner and Faith, you get Strauss or you don't. If you do get it, this set is beyond self recommendation; Buy this set before it disappears from the shelves. Classical Cd shelves these days have hidden boomerangs. One minute here, next minute.....boing going gone)...! The concert hall may never hear greater performances of Strauss' orchestral works as we hear on these nine disks. The sound is nothing short of a rich, full timber as Kempe leads then with inspired and interpretive genius . This all may sound over the edge but I don't think so and I don't think you will be disappointed. Strauss has been served in splendor by the Dresden musicians under Kempe's baton. [Although in an aside I must say that Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra's performance this past summer of Don Juan and the Rosenkavalier suite were superb.] Then I think of the BSO with Levine...., their Strauss should be something else. Bravo and kudos to all for bringing us this gift. Booklet is very well done with one exception. There is not a word in the booklet about Rudolf Kempe and/or the orchestra itself. 10 stars anyway!!
 A classic colleciton, but in some ways now dated September 18, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As revered as Kempe's Strauss is, I don't think anyone who keeps up with recordings can call many of his performances the best in the catalog. Not only did he have fierce competition during his lifetime from Karajan, but EMI's sonics were never great, and with age they sound increasingly muddy and lacking in impact. Kempe really rises to the occasion in Don Quixote and Death and Transfiguration, but at other points, as in the Alpine Symphony, where dash and exuberance count for a lot, he's a bit plodding, and his Zarathustra feels very good without being hair-raising. HIs Ein Heldenleben is musically solid but has been far surpased by Karajan and, more recently, Simon Rattle.
Which is to say, half the fun of collecting Richard Strauss's big bow-wow pieces is to unearth real knockouts, and I find few here. KKempe presents Strauss fairly soberly but with refinement and delicacy in the playing of the Dresdeners -- if that's to your taste, nobody is better. The 9 CDs in the box set badly need remastering, but they're an efficient way to gather the composer's second-rate works all together. Unfortunatley, those pieces fill up almost a third, if not more, of the colleciton.
 terrible, awful, hideous, lousy April 22, 2005
5 out of 69 found this review helpful
The problem with the "classics" is that too many hacks have hacked them to pieces. My opinion of these recordings, for whatever it is worth, is that they simply do not do justice to Strauss's magnificent music.
There is a reason they are a "bargain". I would avoid this set.
Sometimes a boxed set is a good deal, but this one is not. I find the entire set unspeakably dull and literally unlistenable.
In any event, this is merely my opinion. The majority of the other reviewers think its terrific.
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