Strauss's own accounts of Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel and the suite from Le bourgeois gentilhomme have already appeared on Pearl ((CD) GEMMCD9366, 5/90) and I refer readers to my earlier review. At the same time I expressed the hope that DG would restore their five-LP compilation to the catalogue in the CD format, and hardly had copy been set than this newcomer was announced. The Pearl CD derived from 78s, and I found this generally ''brighter and more present'' than the aforementioned LP transfers, though the opening movement of Le bourgeois gentilhomme has more warmth in its LP form. The Pearl is also slightly coarser at climaxes. I have no quarrel with the present DG transfers, which present the sound very much in the same way as did the LPs. There is no evidence of the 'drying out', which some colleagues have complained of recently in CD transfers of historic material, or any loss of immediacy or bloom.
In his January 1977 review of the LP set LS spoke of ''the precision of thought [Strauss] brought to a performance... reflected in his characteristic small, meticulous beat'' and I would add his generally unfussy, unhurried approach. There is nothing 'high-powered' about the wonderfully relaxed opening of Don Quixote, and I have to say that this 1933 recording with Enrico Mainardi is not inferior in quality to the 1941 Ein Heldenleben. LS complained of the shrillness of the Till, neither the DG nor the Pearl CD transfer can do much to mitigate this, but I found my ears very quickly adjusting to the sound elsewhere.
The quality of the orchestral playing is variable: the Heldenleben is by no means as brilliantly played as the Mengelberg 1928 New York Philharmonic version on RCA (nla), nor his 1941 Concertgebouw/Teldec account (reviewed in September 1989). The latter is really quite thrilling in places—the opening of ''The Hero's Battlefield'' is really virtuosic. While the sound of the Concertgebouw recording is inferior to Strauss's own Bavarian recording made in the same year the 1928 Mengelberg account still sounds remarkably good: mind you, so too does Beecham's 1947 EMI version which was reviewed in April.
I recall Egon Wellesz saying how unforgettable Strauss's Mozart was and how he always allowed the music to speak for itself. So he does here and it is good to have these authoritative readings back in circulation, for they follow both the spirit and the letter of the score in a unique way. If some of the playing may not have the polish we find in the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan, it sometimes has an elegance all its own. And it seems to come from an era that had more time and more repose though this impression must inevitaWy be (at least in part) illusory. Doubtless Strauss's account of Eine Alpensinfonie will in time also find its way back to the catalogue.
While on the subject of historic Strauss, I see Decca have just restored Clemens Krauss's Don Quixote (with Fournier) to the catalogue ((CD) 425 974-2DM—to be reviewed later) and I hope his Sinfonia domestica and suite from Le bourgeois gentilhomme will follow later. The latter sounds every bit as relaxed and aristocratic in Krauss's hands, and is better played too. I have sampled some of these DG transfers alongside the LPs and can report there is little cause for complaint: the sound is firmer in the bass and has undergone no loss of warmth. The CD set also reproduces Georg Vadas's excellent essay. Recommended.'