The golden age?

This economic package contains the booklet, but on CD. I said that this is what is advertised, as my oldest edition is Richard Strauss: The Knight of the Rose (Der Rosenkavalier). This is the same - famous - recording in December 1956 because it is more of Karajan. It is stereo but the stereo effect is so discreet that I do realize it that the written indicator; my ears are quite imperfect, this may explain a lot. For more than 50 years and despite many competitors, this version continues to hold the upper hand.

From the orchestral introduction, it is attached to the head of design, lyrical, light and sensual, with a very round sound, also because it is the Philharmonia, already a tendency to legato, winds that seem privileged, an impression very comprehensive, which is opposed to the sound perspective of the recording of Erich Kleiber rival. We will not say that these choices are an off-topic, but this sensuality in addition to that of the work, a little sweet all the same, can contribute to minimizing the Rosenkavalier, opera, coming after Elektra , marked the return of Richard Strauss to a less aggressive language, more consonant, added to a luxurious picturesque historic opera that more does not refuse if the anachronism of the waltz, in short, everything that is called "reaction "the ears of the proponents of avant-garde. Let us add that this work is not the ambiguity, opening on infinite possibilities, some other as Ariadne auf Naxos, although the mixture of smiles and tears that characterize the end of the opera can take its place . It will be recalled that gloated cultureux or made some intellectuals when a Minister of Culture said it was his favorite opera. It was forgotten feminist modernity treatment of the plot which, forty years before the first films of Bergman, was to see men with ironic gaze of women; this was probably the choice of librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, but Strauss had played the game and the result is a very emotional character, that of the Marschallin.

If with Karajan, senses and feelings are at the party, this is not only because of its interpretative choices, but because they adopted, the formal perfection is expected of him is present from the beginning in the end, that end where time seems suspended, that that is not found in all versions the same degree. The finer the most refined taste, unite indeed sensuality. The distribution is hard to match, it also makes the price of this Rosenkavalier. Everybody does not like Schwarzkopf, studied voice for micro studios, so different from that of his public performances, but here we have everything: the dignity of the great lady, longing for the woman who feels the future age, lucidity, interiority. And Octavian is the young Christa Ludwig, Sophie is a Stich-Randall, with its very particular issue, not all appreciate that lets out sounds as if reluctantly, Otto Edelmann, which however was not the largest of Baron Ochs (check with Kleiber) and Eberhard Wächter, Nicolai Gedda, Paul Kuen, Gerhard Unger and even certainly declining glory of Ljuba Welitsch to Marianne!

If you insist on having the most comprehensive choice after looking at "der Rosenkavalier", you can type "The Knight of the Rose". Do not forget to take a look at the recent Brilliant box, which apparently contains this version.