R. Strauss · Symphonia domestica · Tod und Verkliirung

With Karajan's opulent 1973 recording (4/74) currently unlisted and Kempe's available only in a three-disc box, there is no automatic recommendation for a single-disc Domestica in top-notch sound. The work remains something of a black sheep in Strauss's mature output. Lacking a compelling narrative thrust, it tends to come apart at the seams in an unsympathetic performance, exposing its composer as a vapid musical rambler. And yet it contains some exquisitely tender and beguiling invention, something of which Lorin Maazel must be acutely conscious as this is his second digital recording. The conductor's quest for technical perfection can sometimes produce an alienating effect but only those who demand Karajan's saturated sonorities in this repertoire will be dissatisfied with the chamber-like results achieved here. Maazel keeps a sophisticated yet altogether less ostentatious grip on the proceedings, concerned to let individual lines register without strain. This Tod und Verklarung is his fourth on disc and, again, with the rhetoric pared down, the awkward corners seem to disappear.

These are refreshing, thoughtful, superbly prepared performances which will inevitably strike some listeners as understated. The orchestral playing is remarkably fine, the recordings faithful and true, with just a hint of artificiality in the placing of instrumental solos: the sound of the solo violin in Tad's evocation of childhood struck me as not ideally pure.

The Vienna Philharmonic, with whom Maazel himself recorded the Symphonia domestica in a live performance some years ago, sound very different here. There is much greater presence and warmth about the sound but there is also some congestion at climaxes. Having set sensible, relatively brisk tempos, Previn appears reluctant to intervene to delineate textures, the sheer wealth of notes giving rise to a rather elephantine brand of Gemittlichkeit, for all the incidental charm. The conductor has always set great store by the natural flair of the VP0 and on this occasion Strauss's high-lying string writing is not always immaculately turned.

The special attraction of this disc for Straussians is the Parergon, which, on this showing, deserves to be better known. It was written in 1924 for the one-armed Paul Wittgenstein and is played here by Gary Gra ffman, the Director of the famed Curtis Institute (since 1986), whose own performing career was curtailed when he began to lose the use of his right hand. The piece seems more zestful, fluent and cohesive than some of Strauss's programmatic music — perhaps it's just as well that it makes so little reference to the Symphonia domestica beyond reworking the theme associated with the wretched baby. The florid piano line that propels the music forward is underpinned/undermined by some notably scathing wind and brass. The effect is surprisingly tough as well as garrulous with Previn and his colleagues generally avoiding the overstuffed quality of the main work, attacking the notes with undisguised relish. In the Symphonia domestica, Maazel's approach is subtler, belying the glitzy packaging favoured by RCA.
DSG, November 1996: Page 94, Gramophone