Sunday Classics preview: The "other side" of Richard Strauss

Covent Garden music director Antonio Pappano conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra in our selection no. 3 below.

by Ken

Oops, another change of plan. After hearing Richard Strauss's brash and confident depiction of musical bad boy Till Eulenspiegel last night, ostensibly on our way to a fuller encounter with Ibsen's and Grieg's bag boy Peer Gynt tomorrow, we were going to get a corrective tonight in the form of two glimpses into the inner-delving Strauss, who stands squarely in the ranks of the world's greatest composers.

Well, as tends to happen in these parts, that preview post kept growing and growing, to the point where it could hardly be considered a preview. What's more, I wondered whether it really made sense to present what I consider two of the most beautiful chunks of music ever written in a throw-away preview. So that preview is now pushed off to tomorrow's main post, and tonight we have a preview of it. We're still going to hear the two pieces of Strauss's originally planned for tonight -- one of them in longer and shorter versions -- but we're also going to hear a third piece, from which, after listening to it now for 45 years, I still don't get any message.

And, oh yes, while this music isn't all that obscure, and if you don't know it, I'm sure you can easily enough track it down (I am identifying the performers more or less normally), I'm not going to identify it tonight, or tell you which are the two pieces that leave me speechless with awe and which is the one that, er, doesn't.

(1)

This is an English translation of the SHORT VERSION. The LONG VERSION includes about an additional three minutes at the start. We'll have the full English text tomorrow.]

VOICES OF THE WATCHMEN
You spouses in the houses of this city,
love one another more than your lives,
and know: Not for the sake of your life
is the seed of life entrusted to you,
but only for the sake of your love.
BARITONE SOLOIST
Do you hear the Watchmen, child, and their call?
[No answer]
VOICES OF THE WATCHMEN
You spouses, who lie lovingly in each other's arms,
you are the bridge spanning the chasm,
on which the dead come back into life.
Blessed be the work of your love.
BARITONE SOLOIST [hearing no response over his shoulder, stretches out for sleep]
So be it then.

SHORT VERSION

Karl Kamann, bass-baritone; Watchmen unidentified; Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. Live concert performance, June 11, 1953

LONG VERSION

Walter Berry, bass-baritone; Birgit Nilsson, soprano; Georg Tichy (bs), Peter Weber (bs), and Alfred Šramek (bs), Watchmen; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live Oct. 23 and 27, 1977
[Note: The SHORT VERSION text kicks in at about 3:18.]

Note too that among the things we'll hear tomorrow is a performance of the LONG VERSION involving some of these same performers which, while less well recorded, is distinctly superior in some key respects. For tonight I decided to go with the better sound.

(2) and (3)

I'm also not hiding the fact that these two pieces are related -- which is why we're hearing them from the same performers.

(2)

(3)

Vienna Philharmonic, André Previn, cond. DG, recorded October 1992


MEANWHILE PEER GYNT IS PUSHED BACK ANOTHER WEEK

I'd have to double-check the fine print, but I do believe that in the event of a change of program you are entitled to a full refund -- of course, minus a nominal service charge and assorted fees and nonoptional reverse-payment deductions. You're welcome to file a claim, but there's currently a 22-month processing backup, and it's quite possible that in the end it may wind up costing you money. You know how it goes.


SUNDAY CLASSICS POSTS

The current list is here.

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