Strauss - Elektra

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Georg Solti

Decca 475 8231DOR2 Buy now

(108’ · ADD · S/T/t)

Birgit Nilsson sop Elektra; Regina Resnik mez Klytemnestra; Marie Collier sop Chrysothemis; Tom Krause bar Orestes; Gerhard Stolze ten Aegisthus; Tugomir Franc bass Tutor; Pauline Tinsley sop Overseer

Recorded 1966-67.

Elektra is the most consistently inspired of all Strauss’s operas and derives from Greek mythology, with the ghost of Agamemnon, so unerringly delineated in the opening bars, hovering over the whole work. The invention and the intensity of mood are sustained throughout the opera’s one-act length, and the characterisation is both subtle and pointed. It’s a work peculiarly well suited to Solti’s gifts and it’s his best recording in the studios. He successfully maintains the nervous tension throughout the unbroken drama and conveys all the power and tension in Strauss’s enormously complex score (given complete). The recording captures the excellent singers and the Vienna Philharmonic in a warm, spacious acoustic marred only by some questionable electronic effects. Notwithstanding the latter, this is undoubtedly one of the great performances and sounds even more terrifyingly realistic on this magnificent transfer.