For me, Strauss' Frosch contains the must sublime music he ever composed. This suite is a wonderful reminder of that. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Joseph Charles: You had me wondering. Which of the characters in "Frau" is he calling "Frosch"? What does that silly cat have to do with it? Fortunately, I figured it all out. As they say, LOL!
Joseph Charles We heard FroSch this week with Thielemann, Nylund, Stemme, Herlitzius, Koch, Gould et al. in Vienna - 100years after „Uraufführung“ in Wien 😊
Decadent and sentimental music, with occasional nice orchestral textures - it is in the surface where all attention is focussed, underneath there is nothing. Much gesture, much volume, much colour, piled-up masses, and emptiness inside.
This seems to reproduce and summarize every kind of objection that has long been obligatory to make to Richard Strauss. Do you believe that most, if not all, of his other works can qualify in the same way?
@@pedrohenriqueprata Definitely not.... Salome is, I think, a brilliant nightmare, the symphonic poems have beautiful things and some of them are just marvellous like Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. Rosenkavalier is, almost all of it, superb music (especially the preludes of the three acts and the last scene of 1st act with the Feldmarshallin - the best Strauss in opera). Frau ohne Schatten has great passages, amidst insecure note spinning... Intermezzo explores a whole new kind of Strauss, brilliantly so, but gradually sinks into mediocrity and routine.... etc. It is mostly all very mixed as if he did not take much time to reflect and trusted on his flair. The Four Last Songs are a work of genius, no flaws anywhere, both profound and light, like a transcendent Wagner who has listened carefully to the best of Mozart. A most peculiar man, Richard Strauss. I think his wife was the real problem.
@@johnborstlap5497 I read something about the life and music of this composer in a book that was published here in Brazil, The Rest Is Noise, by Alex Ross, which deals with classical music in the 20th century. The author is generally benevolent towards Strauss, who believes he was wronged by twentieth-century "musical politics" and by biographical circumstances that would require a more cautious appraisal, such as his accommodation with Nazism. He said little about his relationship with his wife, except that she had a domineering temperament that perhaps had some influence on her husband's ability to create so many powerful female characters in his operas.
@@pedrohenriqueprata Yes I know Ross' book, is a very good one and he was right to add nuance to RS's political mistakes. I think he was dominated by his wife, for instance she protested against Elektra which she found 'much too modern' and feared loss of income - too modern music would be less successful, less performances, less royalties, and they lived in a large villa in the south of Bavaria. Her objection to Elektra has been documented. She was quite a character, as appears from reminiscences of people around Strauss, and a very good singer herself who gave-up her career to be S's wife, so one can understand her frustrations, which she often ventilated upon her husband. When Strauss depicted something of their own marriage difficulties in 'Intermezzo', she was very angry after the premiere and refused to walk besides Strauss, so they left the theatre separately and walked at two opposite sides of the street. I did some research on the subject of Strauss and the nazi regime and wrote about it here: subterraneanreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/strauss-and-nazis.html
@@johnborstlap5497 Very interesting information, thanks for sharing. Well, I didn't know that the composer's stylistic "regression" had commercial reasons, let alone that his wife could have anything to do with it. I've read in more than one place that the composer's change in style was largely due to the influence of the great Austrian-Jewish writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who had written the libretto for some of Strauss' most popular operas, including "Die Frau ohne Schatten".
For me, Strauss' Frosch contains the must sublime music he ever composed. This suite is a wonderful reminder of that. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Joseph Charles: You had me wondering. Which of the characters in "Frau" is he calling "Frosch"? What does that silly cat have to do with it? Fortunately, I figured it all out. As they say, LOL!
George Locke FroSch Merans Fr. o. Sch. 😉
Joseph Charles We heard FroSch this week with Thielemann, Nylund, Stemme, Herlitzius, Koch, Gould et al. in Vienna - 100years after „Uraufführung“ in Wien 😊
@@georgelocke9523 took me a while too, haha
@@georgelocke9523 Now you have me confused... "Frosch" means Frog in German, not cat?
R. Strauss is half-God for me
Great music, as always by Richard Strauss !!
Schön! wie immer!
Ja!! Es geht auf die fremde einsatz su gruppen und wieviel zuschauer echte glanz under niedermal!!
Richard Strauss:Az árnyék nélküli asszony-Szimfonikus fantázia
Berlini Filharmonikus Zenekar
Vezényel:Zubin Mehta
Wunderbar.
Beautiful music! But I miss the falcon which is important in the opera
Imop. His greatest opera.
Grande!
Una maravilla, como lo es la ópera de la que sale.
Ah,quel passaggio di trombone solo a mezza strada!
N
nothing to see !!
papoocanada : Plenty to listen to and absorb.
That's what's called music, you'll get used to it.
Is this orientalist?
Decadent and sentimental music, with occasional nice orchestral textures - it is in the surface where all attention is focussed, underneath there is nothing. Much gesture, much volume, much colour, piled-up masses, and emptiness inside.
This seems to reproduce and summarize every kind of objection that has long been obligatory to make to Richard Strauss. Do you believe that most, if not all, of his other works can qualify in the same way?
@@pedrohenriqueprata Definitely not.... Salome is, I think, a brilliant nightmare, the symphonic poems have beautiful things and some of them are just marvellous like Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. Rosenkavalier is, almost all of it, superb music (especially the preludes of the three acts and the last scene of 1st act with the Feldmarshallin - the best Strauss in opera). Frau ohne Schatten has great passages, amidst insecure note spinning... Intermezzo explores a whole new kind of Strauss, brilliantly so, but gradually sinks into mediocrity and routine.... etc. It is mostly all very mixed as if he did not take much time to reflect and trusted on his flair. The Four Last Songs are a work of genius, no flaws anywhere, both profound and light, like a transcendent Wagner who has listened carefully to the best of Mozart. A most peculiar man, Richard Strauss. I think his wife was the real problem.
@@johnborstlap5497 I read something about the life and music of this composer in a book that was published here in Brazil, The Rest Is Noise, by Alex Ross, which deals with classical music in the 20th century. The author is generally benevolent towards Strauss, who believes he was wronged by twentieth-century "musical politics" and by biographical circumstances that would require a more cautious appraisal, such as his accommodation with Nazism. He said little about his relationship with his wife, except that she had a domineering temperament that perhaps had some influence on her husband's ability to create so many powerful female characters in his operas.
@@pedrohenriqueprata Yes I know Ross' book, is a very good one and he was right to add nuance to RS's political mistakes. I think he was dominated by his wife, for instance she protested against Elektra which she found 'much too modern' and feared loss of income - too modern music would be less successful, less performances, less royalties, and they lived in a large villa in the south of Bavaria. Her objection to Elektra has been documented. She was quite a character, as appears from reminiscences of people around Strauss, and a very good singer herself who gave-up her career to be S's wife, so one can understand her frustrations, which she often ventilated upon her husband. When Strauss depicted something of their own marriage difficulties in 'Intermezzo', she was very angry after the premiere and refused to walk besides Strauss, so they left the theatre separately and walked at two opposite sides of the street. I did some research on the subject of Strauss and the nazi regime and wrote about it here: subterraneanreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/strauss-and-nazis.html
@@johnborstlap5497 Very interesting information, thanks for sharing. Well, I didn't know that the composer's stylistic "regression" had commercial reasons, let alone that his wife could have anything to do with it. I've read in more than one place that the composer's change in style was largely due to the influence of the great Austrian-Jewish writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who had written the libretto for some of Strauss' most popular operas, including "Die Frau ohne Schatten".