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Richard Strauss’s Salome was unsurprisingly the scandal of its time. For years nobody outside Germany would produce it. The celebrated ‘The Dance of the Seven Veils’ which Salome performs before Herod in return for the head of John the Baptist was the last section of the opera to be composed. Jesús López-Cobos’s reading is truly hedonistic, sensual and decadent; his rhythms sinuous, seductive, his nuances and phrasings evocative of Salome’s every twist and turn and ‘revelation’. His harsh tuttis are redolent of the drooling of the lascivious and cruel Herod. 

The main item in this programme is the Suite from Strauss’s most popular opera, Der Rosenkavalier. The music reflects the intensity and innocence of youthful romance as between Sophie and Octavian (The Presentation of the Rose), the fading romantic aspirations of the ageing Marschallin and the boorish lechery and comical come-uppance of Baron Ochs; funny how the best-known and best-loved waltz in the opera is associated with him. Above all it is an opulent celebration of the waltz. All those wonderful glittering tunes are paraded here and affectionately performed, if at times a little shakily, but without undue sugariness. 

The Burleske is one of two unfinished Strauss works for piano and orchestra – the other was a Rhapsody, since lost. The Burleske, so named by Eugen d’Albert who completed the work, was originally named a Scherzo by Richard Strauss. We have d’Albert’s formidable technique to thank for such a sparkling work. There is a certain Brahmsian quality about it but the harmonies and luscious orchestration are undoubtedly Straussian. It is well named for there is a sense of the sardonic and of pomposity deflated in many of its pages and the usual languid romantic moments are interspersed. Jeffrey Kahane surmounts its virtuosic demands with aplomb. 

To the bottom of this review and, it must be said, bottom-drawer Richard Strauss. The Festival Prelude for Organ and Orchestra was composed in 1913 for the opening of Vienna’s newest concert hall. Its pomposity and banality must have impressed some important personage - possibly the Emperor? - who opened the hall. It sounds like something left over in the 1930s on a desk in the Warner Bros music department. 

The Telarc sound throughout is luscious and clear. 

An enjoyable collection. 

Ian Lace

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