Clemens Krauss – Complete Decca Recordings (FLAC)

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss, Josef Strauss, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner
Performer: London Philharmonic Choir, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wilhelm Backhaus, Pierre Fournier, Ernst Moraweg, Tiana Lemnitz, Erna Berger, Viorica Ursuleac, Paul Schöffler, Hilde Gueden
Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Orchester der Staatsoper Berlin, National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Clemens Krauss
Number of Discs: 16
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Eloquence
Catalogue: ELQ4841704
Release: 2022
Size: 3.49 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover

CD 01
Ludwig van Beethoven
Overture – Leonore No. 1, Op. 138
Overture – Leonore No. 2, Op. 72a
Overture – Leonore No. 3, Op. 72b
Overture – Fidelio, Op. 72
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19

CD 02
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ‘Emperor’

CD 03
Johannes Brahms
Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
Variations on a theme by Haydn, Op. 56a
Hungarian Dances Nos. 1 & 3 (orch. Brahms)

Antonín Dvořák
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 (B.83) Nos. 3, 5 & 8

CD 04
Richard Strauss
Don Juan, Op. 20
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

CD 05
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30
Don Quixote, Op. 35

CD 06
Richard Strauss
Symphonia domestica, Op. 53
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme – Suite, Op. 60

CD 07
Richard Strauss
Aus Italien, Op. 16
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24

CD 08–09
Richard Strauss
Salome, Op. 54

CD 10
Ludwig van Beethoven
Overture – Fidelio, Op. 72

Richard Wagner
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod (concert version)
Parsifal: Karfreitagszauber (concert version)

Richard Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier: Hab mir’s gelobt

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni: Deh vieni
Le nozze di Figaro: Se vuol ballare
Le nozze di Figaro: Voi che sapete; Giunse alfin il momento … Deh vieni
Idomeneo: Se il padre; Non più, tutto ascoltai … Non temer, amato bene, KV 490

Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto: Caro nome; Tutte le feste … Ah, solo per me

CD 11–12
Johann Strauss II
Die Fledermaus

CD 13–14
Johann Strauss II
Der Zigeunerbaron

New Year Concerts
CD 15
Johann Strauss II
01. G’schichten aus dem Wienerwald – Walzer, Op. 325

Josef Strauss
02. Die Libelle – Polka mazurka, Op. 204
03. Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb und Lust! – Walzer, Op. 263
04. Jokey – Polka schnell, Op. 278

Johann Strauss II
05. Éljen a Magyar! – Polka, Op. 332
06. Ägyptischer Marsch, Op. 335
07. Im Krapfenwald’l – Polka, Op. 336
08. Vergnügungszug – Polka, Op. 281

Johann Strauss II & Josef Strauss
09. Pizzicato Polka

Johann Strauss II
10. Künstlerleben – Walzer, Op. 316
11. Frühlingsstimmen – Walzer, Op. 410

CD 16
Josef Strauss
01. Dorfschwalben aus Österreich – Walzer, Op. 164
02. Moulinet – Polka française, Op. 57

Johann Strauss II
03. Morgenblätter – Walzer, Op. 279
04. Ritter Pásmán – Csárdás, Op. 441
05. Auf der Jagd – Polka schnell, Op. 373

Josef Strauss
06. Ohne Sorgen! – Polka schnell, Op. 271
07. Feuerfest! – Polka française, Op. 269

Johann Strauss II
08. Stadt und Land – Polka, Op. 322
09. Perpetuum Mobile – Musikalischer scherz, Op. 257

Johann Strauss II
10. Bei uns z’ Haus – Walzer, Op. 361

Josef Strauss
11. Sphärenklänge – Walzer, Op. 235

Johann Strauss II
12. An der schönen blauen Donau – Walzer, Op. 314

Josef Strauss
13. Plappermäulchen – Polka schnell, Op. 245
14. Auf Ferienreisen! – Polka schnell, Op. 133

Johann Strauss II
15. Annen-Polka, Op. 117

Johann Strauss I
16. Radetzky-Marsch, Op. 228

The most comprehensive collection ever issued of Clemens Krauss’s commercial legacy of recordings, newly remastered and presented as an original jackets limited edition.

In Mark Obert-Thorn’s new remasterings for this Eloquence box set, we can appreciate anew the genius for colour, pacing and timing which made Clemens Krauss the unrivalled conductor of his day in the music of Johann and Richard Strauss. He began recording for Decca in 1947 – three sessions of Brahms in London including a famous account of the Alto Rhapsody which found Kathleen Ferrier in glorious voice – allowing for less than eight years of activity in the studio before the conductor’s untimely death from a heart attack in May 1954, hours after conducting a concert in Mexico City.

In that time, however, Decca secured Krauss in much of the repertoire for which he was renowned as a peerless interpreter. A Richard Strauss series captured all the major symphonic poems except the Alpine Symphony, plus a complete Salome with Christel Goltz, and, for Polydor (Deutsche Grammophon) the rapturous final Trio from Der Rosenkavalier recorded in pre-war Berlin with his wife, the soprano Viorica Ursuleac, as the Marschallin. Unlike many later recordings, these are not performances which pull out the modernist strands in Strauss’s form and harmony. Rather they place the composer in a lineage of lyricists and musical dramatists stretching back to Mozart. Strauss himself apparently regarded Krauss as the supreme conductor of his generation, supporting the younger man’s rise to a succession of top jobs of 1930s and 40s Austria and Germany.

During the war, Krauss founded the tradition of New Year’s Day concerts in Vienna, and Decca capitalised on their popularity with three albums which have become touchstones of interpretation in the music of the Strauss family – ‘by turns committed and distanced, never pasteurized or bent on proving anything’, as Carlos Kleiber remarked of the Decca recording of Die Fledermaus, which became a library choice for the work as soon as it was released in January 1951.

The trio of Beethoven concertos with Backhaus has also been a perennial favourite among collectors; much less familiar is the album of Leonore/Fidelio overtures which marked the premature end to Krauss’s Decca career, charged with visceral intensity and elevated by needle-point rhythmic detail. Sleeves feature the original Decca covers and the booklet includes a survey of Krauss’s remarkable life and times by Peter Quantrill.