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CHAN 10236 X Front.qxd 6/2/07 1:25 pm Page 1 CHAN 10236 X CHANDOS CLASSICS CHAN 10236 X BOOK.qxd 6/2/07 1:29 pm Page 2 Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Symphony No. 2, Op. 12 40:34 in F minor • in f-Moll • en fa mineur 1 I Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso 12:55 2 II Scherzo. Presto 7:13 3 III Andante cantabile 9:08 4 IV Finale. Allegro assai, molto appassionato 11:09 5 Romanze in F major* 10:14 in F-Dur • en fa majeur for Cello and Orchestra Andante cantabile Six Songs, Op. 68† 25:14 Otto Wiedemann/Lebrecht Music & Arts 6 1 An die Nacht 3:34 7 2 Ich wollt’ ein Sträußlein binden 3:06 8 3 Säusle, liebe Myrthe 4:34 9 4 Als mir dein Lied erklang 3:47 10 5 Amor 3:21 11 6 Lied der Frauen 6:39 TT 76:20 Eileen Hulse soprano† Raphael Wallfisch cello* Richard Strauss Royal Scottish National Orchestra Edwin Paling leader Neeme Järvi 3 CHAN 10236 X BOOK.qxd 6/2/07 1:29 pm Page 4 Meiningen Court Orchestra in 1885 and von Knözinger, Munich general auditor and Strauss: Symphony No. 2 in F minor/Romanze/Six Songs invited him to conduct the symphony for his public prosecutor, who kept the manuscript. It début. In the audience was Brahms who was first played by Hanusˇ Wihan, dedicatee of commented, ‘Quite pretty, young man’, and the sonata and an orchestral colleague of Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op. 12 under Franz Wüllner (who had conducted the advised him to study Schubert’s dances and Strauss’s father in the Munich Court Opera In the years between 1881 and 1885 Strauss premieres of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre). invent eight-bar melodies. Orchestra. (Wihan later gave the first developed from a schoolboy composer into a This charming work also attracted the great Unlike Franz Strauss, listeners today will not performance of Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto, composer whose music was attracting the Hans von BüIow, who put it into the touring find the work very modern, but its power and Op. 104.) Strauss scored the Romanze for attention of the leading German conductors. It repertoire of the Meiningen Court Orchestra the strength of its construction merit serious cello and orchestra, as it is recorded here, but was a meteoric rise to fame. He was still much and also commissioned a Suite for wind from attention. Strauss was never particularly at he also produced a version with piano under the influence of his father, Franz Strauss. The Violin Concerto, Cello Sonata and ease within the straitjacket of sonata form and accompaniment which was often played. For Strauss, first horn of the Orchestra of the First Horn Concerto swiftly followed. Strauss was soon to abandon it for the tone poem, Wihan he then abridged this cello-and-piano Munich Court Opera, who detested modernism spent the winter of 1883–84 in Berlin and but the first movement and Finale of this version to about a third of the length of the in music, especially Wagner and Liszt, and while there began to compose his Second symphony are notable examples of the young original and altered it also in other ways. Many brought up his son on the classical models of Symphony in F minor, completing it on composer’s increasing mastery, while the copies of this ‘Wihan version’ have been Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and 25 January 1884. The score was seen by the Scherzo and slow movement are attractive preserved in private and public ownership, one Mendelssohn, with Schumann just about German-born American conductor Theodor melodically and are well scored. It is no wonder of them being inscribed by the composer to allowed a look in. But old Franz could not Thomas when he visited his old friend Franz that the critics of the day were so impressed. the principal cellist of the Dresden Opera prevent young Richard from listening to Strauss during his summer visit to Europe. He Perhaps they did not expect Strauss to Orchestra. In one movement marked Andante Brahms and Wagner and, as so often happens, immediately arranged to give the symphony its develop as he did, but we can pick up several cantabile, the Romanze is in a flowing, rich the son later rebelled against the father’s first performance with the New York hints of the later master in this fascinating melodic style and matches the sonata in being teaching, and became an out-and-out Philharmonic Orchestra in New York on symphony. an advance on Strauss’s earlier instrumental Wagnerian. 13 December 1884. The first European compositions. The first modern performance of It was Franz Strauss, with his amateur Wilde performance was conducted by WüIlner in Romanze in F major the orchestral version took place in Dresden, Gung’l Orchestra, who conducted the first Cologne. Strauss was at the rehearsals and was Strauss’s Romanze in F major has emerged in the rebuilt Semper Opera House, on 21 May performance in Munich in March 1881 of his overjoyed by the sound of his music, although from the Garmisch archive only in recent years, 1986. The abridged version had been revived sixteen-year-old son’s First Symphony in he conceded that there was ‘perhaps just a but its existence has been known since the in the previous October in Munich at a concert D minor. Though well received, it did not make little too much counterpoint’. Writing home, he early part of the composer’s career when it given by the Richard Strauss Institute at which the boy’s name outside his native city. That was gave a warning that ‘Papa will open his eyes achieved a considerable, if brief, popularity. It the conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch was the achieved with the Serenade, Op. 7, for thirteen wide when he hears how modern it sounds’. was completed in June 1883, not long after pianist, with Peter Wöpke the cellist. The wind instruments, which received its first Bülow, too, was impressed by the work. He the Cello Sonata, Op. 6, also in F major, and unabridged version for cello and piano has performance in Dresden in November 1882 appointed Strauss his assistant with the was dedicated to Strauss’s uncle, Anton Ritter now been published. 4 5 CHAN 10236 X BOOK.qxd 6/2/07 1:29 pm Page 6 Six Songs, Op. 68 may have sung it instead at the 1922 Salzburg 9 February 1941 by Erna Schlüter and sopranos. She has sung Flora (The Turn of In 1885 Strauss composed nine songs (only meeting of the International Society for conducted by Hugo Balzer. the Screw) in several venues in Europe and at eight were published, as Op. 10) to texts by Contemporary Music. The first performance, Good as they are with piano The Music Center of Los Angeles, and Hermann von Gilm. These include two of his excluding No. 6, was given in Berlin on accompaniment, the Brentano songs gain in also undertaken Constanze and Blonde most famous lieder, ‘Zueignung’ and ‘Die 30 May 1919 by Birgitt Engell, accompanied expressive power with orchestra. The first and (Die Entführung aus dem Serail ), Queen of the Nacht’, and heralded a prolific outpouring of by Georg Schumann. No. 6 was first sung by last songs suggest a heavier voice than the Night and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Madame songs which lasted until 1906, when it Mary Grasenick, accompanied by Alfred four middle ones. ‘An die Nacht’ immediately Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor) and Fiakermilli suddenly ceased. One reason for the break Klietmann, in Dresden on 29 September proclaims the late style of Die Frau ohne (Arabella). In the world of contemporary opera was a dispute with publishers, but a more 1920. Schatten with its impassioned chromatic she has performed The Maid in Powder Her compelling reason was that his wife, the Strauss orchestrated No. 6 of Op. 68, ‘Lied modulations. The next four exploit coloratura: Face and was understudy for the role of Ariel soprano Pauline de Ahna, retired that year der Frauen’, on 22 September 1933 for captivatingly in ‘lch wollt’ ein Sträußlein in the premiere of The Tempest, both operas from the concert platform. (She gave one another soprano whom he greatly admired, binden’, delicately in ‘Säusle, liebe Myrthe’, by Thomas Adès, and has sung roles in more recital, in January 1908.) Since 1894 Viorica Ursuleac, later to become the wife of passionately in ‘Als mir dein Lied erklang’, Michael Berkeley’s Baa Baa Black Sheep and many of Strauss’s songs had been written for the conductor Clemens Krauss. It was one of and like Zerbinetta in ‘Amor’ (this has the Oliver Knussen’s Higgelty Piggelty Pop. her, whom he regarded as their finest four of his songs (the others were ‘Mein lightest orchestral accompaniment and an Performing extensively on the concert interpreter. Auge’, ‘Befreit’ and ‘Frühlingsfeier’) which he extra bar at the start). The greatest of the set, platform both at home and abroad, Eileen The urge to compose lieder did not return orchestrated as a group for her to sing in and the most dramatic, is ‘Lied der Frauen’. Hulse has made several appearances at the until January 1918, stimulated by two Berlin. Nearly seven years later, in June 1940, The title of Brentano’s poem is ‘Song of BBC Proms. circumstances: he had spent the Christmas Strauss told Krauss: women whose men are at war’, which period of 1917 reading the prose and poetry I chanced to play through my Brentano lieder, indicates that Strauss in 1918 was not Born into a family of professional musicians, of Achim von Arnim (1781–1831) and Op.