Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra – Salome’s Dance (1988/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra – Salome’s Dance (1988/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:13 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD

Czech conductor Zdeněk Košler leads the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra on this 1989 album featuring Richard Strauss’s iconic Also sprach Zarathustra, one of the most recognizable pieces in all of classical music. Strauss makes use of an unusually large orchestra, deployed in the most varied way, while there is a tonal ambiguity that remains to the final bars.

„Strauss ‘career as the most important German opera composer of his time took some radical turns. His first successful operas, Salome and Elektra, were decadent and lurid sex-and-violence tales based on the Bible (via Oscar Wilde) and Greek myth. From there, always relishing startling the public, Strauss veered 180 degrees to Der Rosenkavalier, a silvery, perfumed comedy set in Mozart’s time. The Marschallin, an older woman (35! gasp!) who philosophically accepts her young lover’s crush on an even younger woman, is a role most every diva yearns to make her own, culminating in a lush, bittersweet three-soprano finale to die for. Strauss paints this upper-class milieu by weaving elegant, opulent waltzes through his score; these have become favorite orchestral show-off pieces, as you’ll hear in Zdenek Kosler’s richly ebullient reading. (Also on this disc, there’s a bit of Salome, her over-the-top ‘Dance of the Seven Veils.“)“ (Gavin Borchert, Wondering Sound)

Tracklist:
1. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – I. Prelude (01:49)
2. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – II. Of the Afterworldsmen (03:07)
3. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – III. Of the Great Longing (01:57)
4. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – IV. Of Joys and Passions (02:09)
5. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – V. The Funeral (02:25)
6. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – VI. Song of Science (04:08)
7. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – VII. The Convalescent (05:34)
8. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – VIII. The Dance Song (04:09)
9. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – IX. The Night Song (03:50)
10. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – X. The Night-Wanderer’s Song (04:06)
11. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – Salome’s Dance, TrV 215a (09:45)
12. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59, TrV 227: Waltz Sequence No. 1 (12:08)

Personnel:
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Zdeněk Košler, conductor

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