STRAUSS Schlagobers DEBUSSY Jeux LIGETI Melodien (Nott)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: György Ligeti, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Pentatone
Magazine Review Date: 12/2018
Media Format: Super Audio CD
Media Runtime: 73
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: PTC5186 721
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Schlagobers |
Richard Strauss, Composer
Jonathan Nott, Conductor Richard Strauss, Composer Suisse Romande Orchestra |
Jeux |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Jonathan Nott, Conductor Suisse Romande Orchestra |
Melodien |
György Ligeti, Composer
György Ligeti, Composer Jonathan Nott, Conductor Suisse Romande Orchestra |
Author: Hugo Shirley
Either way, one can only welcome a new recording of the Suite from what must be Strauss’s most maligned major work – a misguided 1924 ballet about frivolity and excess that a Vienna brought to its knees by hyperinflation found difficult to stomach. It’s certainly not top-drawer music but shows Strauss in fluent, reasonably effective form. And this new, clear and light-footed recording helps to hide its excesses, with Nott (and Pentatone’s engineers) preventing the work’s arteries from clogging up. There’s outstanding solo work, not least from the flute in the ‘Dance of the Tea Leaves’, and Nott’s players make light work of the not inconsiderable challenges of the ‘Leaping Dance’ that follows the ‘Dance of the Small Pralines’ – such movement titles give an idea of the slightness of Strauss’s own scenario.
In general it’s better played and recorded than Neeme Järvi’s Detroit recording (Chandos, 9/98), and more refined, if perhaps less theatrical, than Karl Anton Rickenbacher’s account with the Bamberg Symphony (Koch Schwann, 12/01; Järvi includes an ‘Introduction’, incidentally, that is missing from both other recordings). This new account also has the advantage – to me, anyway – of placing the work within an unexpected context, which forces one to hear the music a little differently. And the couplings are also beautifully performed. The Debussy – a work set to a scenario every bit as frivolous as Strauss’s – is beautifully unrushed and clear. The Ligeti is expert, authoritative and properly disquieting – as one would expect from a conductor with a track record like Nott’s. A fascinating, surprising and revealing programme.
Explore the world’s largest classical music catalogue on Apple Music Classical.
Included with an Apple Music subscription. Download now.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £9.20 / month
SubscribeGramophone Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £11.45 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.