* RICHARD STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life); WEBERN: Im Sommerwind – Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Bernard Haitink – CSO-Resound multichannel SACD SCOR 901 1004, 62:32 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] *****:
This thru-composed near-50-minute work is widely considered the most egotistical classical composition ever written – for Strauss’ self-promotion by depicting himself as the hero in question, his wife as his faithful companion, and using snippy-sounding music to represent his critics. On the other hand, Strauss did say his musical portrait was written with tongue in cheek, and that he is not a hero type. (Which, from his bio and his footage on the Great Conductors DVD, seems to be accurate.) Peter Schickele said he wrote his own Bach Portrait to do for Bach “what Copland did for Lincoln, Tchaikovsky did for little Russians, and what Richard Strauss did for himself.” Strauss used the Wagnerian technique of leitmotifs thruout the work, but fitted into a general sonata-allegro structure.
The Chicago Symphony has had a long relationship to this popular orchestral work. In existence only nine years, the symphony introduced the work to the U.S. under conductor Theodore Thomas in 1900. Its 1953 LP under Antal Dorati is still regarded as one of the gems of Mercury’s Living Presence mono period. The best-known recording with audiophiles would undoubtedly be Fritz Reiner’s RCA Living Stereo SACD with the Chicago Symphony in 1954. Then Daniel Barenboim recorded the work again for Erato/Warner Classics in 2003. The conductor on this new CSO SACD, Bernard Haitink, also recorded A Hero’s Life in 1970 for Philips, and it is available on SACD from Universal Japan
Though the Living Stereo SACD is derived from only two-channel rather than three-channel tape masters, it has a lavishly rich and full sonic that sounds just as good to me as the audiophile vinyl reissue on a high quality turntable. However, though not as opulent-sounding, the new CSO-Resound SACD has more detail in the various sections of the orchestra and of course a more involving surround feeling, including some impression of the hall ambience. The album’s cover art of multiple images of Richard Strauss was inspired by Andy Warhol’s “Eight Elvises,” and is supposed to be a comment on hero worship in a celebrity- and media-saturated culture.
Although the Strauss is the main dish here, I was blown over by the rarely-performed Webern Im Sommerwind – one of his last tonal works and never performed or published during the composer’s lifetime. Webern was also highly influenced by Wagner, as well as by Richard Strauss’ tone poems. Im Sommerwind is a programmatic work closely following a poem about the joys of a summer day in the woods and fields. The composer had just heard Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night shortly before, which was also based on a musical interpretation of a poem. Im Sommerwind has two places where the orchestra goes completely silent; something found in new music today but unheard of at that time. Hi-res surround reproduction is absolutely required for the subtleties of this gorgeous and moving piece.
– John Sunier
