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STRAUSS: Alpine Symphony, Op. 64. Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic.
Solemn Entry of the Knights of St. John. SHOSTAKOVICH: Hamlet (music for the 1964 film) Philips has come up with a real winner in this recording of Strauss's massive Alpine Symphony recorded in the Musikverein March 1996 produced by Wilhelm Hellweg with Onno Scholtze listed as "balance engineer" and in charge of DVD Audio surround sound. Both did their jobs spectacularly well. Sonics are spectacularly rich displaying in a most impressive way the huge sound of the famed Vienna Philharmonic. There's plenty of front separation, with horns on the left, other brass on the right. Other channels provide ambient sound as well as augmenting in a major way what is heard in front. The famed hunting horns of the Ascent section (track 4) (DVD notes state 16 extra horns were used) are heard from all speakers—no attempt is made to create the distant effect called for in the score. There are huge masses of sumptuous orchestral sound to be heard on this recording, including the rich sound of the Musikverein's organ. The performance is one of Ozawa's finest achievements on disk. A plus is inclusion of two seldom-heard works of Strauss: a short (2:23) Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic composed for 22 brass instruments and 2 timpani written for the Vienna Philharmonic Ball and premiered March 4, 1924, and Solemn Entry of the Knights of St. John (6:08), dedicated to Prince Friedrich of Prussia, master of the Knights of St. John of Bailey-Brandenburg. Written for 25 brass instruments and timpani, this was composed in July 1909 and premiered December 9, 1909. Apparently these are the only recordings of these works. Even with their inclusion, playing time on this disk is less than an hour. Producers easily could have included another of Strauss's shorter symphonic poems. It's difficult to understand why this release was issued on DVD audio. There is a photo gallery and selected artist discography, but while Alpine is playing we must look at one picture of Ozawa's pensive physiognomy (taken many years ago), with cherry blossoms in the background, the scenario changing only with identification of each section in small print along the bottom. This is highly distracting to say the least! An SACD version would be welcome. Naxos' fine recording of Shostakovich's complete music for the 1964 film of Hamlet has been reviewed previously on this site when issued on SACD (REVIEW). Now we have it on DVD audio sounding equally spectacular; I imagine most collectors would prefer the SACD version as it is less cumbersome. R.E.B. (April 2005) |