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Staatskapelle Halle & Fabrice Bollon – R. Strauss: Josephslegende (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:29 minutes | 708 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Richard Strauss’s single-act ballet Josephs Legende emerged in 1914 just as the world’s attention was turning to war. But with its exotic instrumental colouring and the composer’s intent to rejuvenate dance into a ‘purely inspirational form’ dedicated to ‘absolute beauty’, it reveals a great ballet composer and demonstrates his orchestral mastery to the full. Josephs Legende is a parable about struggles between good and evil based on the familiar Old Testament story of the slave boy Joseph. The work’s dramatic tale is set with alluring sensuality expressed through Strauss’s gift for soaring themes. Not many associate Richard Strauss with the world of ballet, and Josephs Legende is one of his less well-known orchestral scores. There are a few recordings around, and our recording of the orchestral suite with the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnn Falletta (8.572041), was considered ‘utterly glorious’ in MusicWeb International, but this work has long been overshadowed by the popularity of Strauss’s other stage and orchestral pieces.
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Staatskapelle Halle – Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Manru (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:18:31 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CPO
We know Ignaz Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) as a legendary pianist, probably also as the first president of the newly founded state of Poland in 1918 – and we have certainly heard that he left behind a not insignificant compositional œuvre: In particular, his Piano Concerto in A minor and the Symphony in B minor “Polonia” have deservedly made it to recording honors. A similar one-off to these works is the opera Manru, which was premiered at the Dresden Semper Opera on May 29, 1901, and met with triumphant success. Some 120 years later, on March 19, 2022, the “Gypsy drama” was brought out again for the first time in the original German language at the Halle Opera House, and it turned out that not only the tragedy arising from ethnic conflicts, but above all Paderewski’s music has lost none of its former appeal: The original layout of the three-act work, the successful examination of Richard Wagner’s legacy, and the spirited diction influenced by native folk music result in a synthesis that is still able to immediately captivate today. It is not without reason that the Halle Opera production was awarded the FAUST Perspective Prize in the fall of 2022.
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