Composer: Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Strauss
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: LPO
Catalogue: LPO0117
Release: 2020
Size: 427 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Strauss: Symphonia Domestica, Op. 53
01. I. Thema I – III
02. II. Scherzo. Munter
03. III. Wiegenlied. Mässig langsam
04. IV. Adagio
05. V. Finale. Sehr lebhaft
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35
06. I. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
07. II. The Story of the Kalandar Prince
08. III. The Young Prince and Princess
09. IV. Festival at Baghdad
All the music on this release tells a story. From the sweeping, epic adventures of the One Thousand and One Nights in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade to the simple beauty of daily family life in Strauss’s richly melodic Symphonia Domestica.
This is the first release on the LPO label with conductor Zubin Mehta, whose working relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra has spanned more than 30 years. The pieces were recorded live in concert, just a few years after his seminal recording with the Orchestra of Ravi Shankar’s Sitar Concerto No. 2 and the close relationship between conductor and Orchestra is apparent.
Zubin Mehta returns to conduct the Orchestra once again in November 2020 at Royal Festival Hall, with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 and Shankar’s Sitar Concerto No. 2.
Strauss’s Symphonia Domesticais scored for huge forces and showcases the full scale of the Orchestra. Over five movements, it describes a day and night in the life of the Strauss family -mother, father and child. Written around the same time, for similar forces, it is a domestic counterpart to his Alpine Symphony, released on the LPO label in June 2018.
This is the first Rimsky-Korsakov release on the label. His unparalleled use of musical colour brings out every shade of the orchestra, in a thrilling performance under Zubin Mehta.
Richard Strauss’ Symphonia Domestica, Op. 53, has never been one of his more frequently performed works. It was savaged by German critics expecting the Olympian heights of Also sprach Zarathustra, and certainly not expecting a programmatic work introducing the members of the composer’s family and even their alarm clock. The dissenters to this critical opinion, however, were the great American public, who mobbed not only the premiere at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Strauss himself, but two more hastily arranged performances at Wanamaker’s department store. The key is to take the work’s gentleness and its small details at face value, and this is accomplished admirably here by conductor Zubin Mehta, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Even better, is the pairing on this live LPO concert: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35, might seem poles away from the Symphonia Domestica in its contrast of eastern exoticism to Strauss’ bourgeois world, but Mehta asks hearers to listen again. Both works are delicately orchestrated, a bit folkish in places, and they alternate action with big melodies in a similar way, and what melodies they are. Although Mehta’s readings are on the restrained side, his “The Young Prince and Princess” movement offers a tune that will linger in the mind. A fine pairing of favorites from the London Philharmonic’s in-house label.