CD 87
Richard Strauss and the Tyrol
Richard Strauss when he was composing his tone poem, Don Juan, 1888
In April 1890 the Tyrolean composer Ludwig Thuille wrote to his friend Richard Strauss: „Today I sat at the ‘Don-Juan’ score for six hours and have sweated a good deal over trying to turn your ‘fermenting dragon’s brew’ into a pianistic ‘milk of human kindness.’ It’s quite slow going ...” Richard Strauss had dedicated his revolutionary opus 20 to his dear friend Ludwig Thuille, who prepared a piano duet version of it. This masterful arrangement of the famous symphonic poem is documented on this CD for the first time, as is Thuille’s arrangement of Strauss’ tone poem, Macbeth. A further connection to the Tyrol in Richard Strauss’ work is to be found in his eight songs to poems by the lyric poet Hermann von Gilm of Innsbruck. The composer had already set four of these poems to music during his summer holiday in Steinach on the Brenner Pass. The musicians interpreting his music on this CD are the soprano Sabina von Walther of Bolzano, the Busoni competition prizewinner Bojidar Noëv, and Shao Yin Huang, the winner of the reputable ARD competition.
Track 7, 1:04
Acht Lieder
Die Verschwiegenen