# David Zinman Conducts Richard Strauss



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Other than updates to old posts, the one _Cover2Cover _share I have planned for this month is a trio of selections from David Zinman’s anthology of orchestral works by Richard Strauss. His complete set (over 7 CDs) compares well to a similar set by Rudof Kempe that we sampled in these pages in the past.

American conductor Davis Zinman trained as a violinist and conductor, with a significant apprenticeship (along with Lorin Maazel) under French-American conductor Pierre Monteux. Monteux had a strong mastery of French repertoire and was renowned for premiering many seminal works from the first two decades of the 20th century (such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) but had a soft spot for German romantics (ditto for another French conductor who made his mark in Boston, Charles Munch).

Most of Zinman’s career has been based out of Europe – early stages in the Netherlands, and in the latter stages of his memorable tenure with the Baltimore Symphony (1985-1998), Zinman became music director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in 1995.

Monteux’s influence on Zinman’s approach and his great all-around ability to navigate the entire Classical Music repertoire makes him in my mind one of the finest American conductors of his generation.

The below YouTube link points to the complete anthology, but the montage I ha eprepared focuses on three works, including the large tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra. _Aus Italien_ (From Italy), Strauss's first tone poem, is described by the composer as a "symphonic fantasy". It was completed in 1886 when he was 22 years old. It was inspired by the composer's visit to Italy in the summer of the same year, where he travelled to Rome, Bologna, Naples, Sorrento, Salerno, and Capri. He began to sketch the work while still on the journey.

Strauss’ single movement Romanze for cello and orchestra was composed bout the same time as his cello sonata. The piece somehow came to be forgotten, but was eventually published by Schott in 1987.

Happy Listening!










*Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)*

_Aus Italien_, Symphonic Fantasy for large orchestra in G major, TrV 147 [Op. 16]

_Romanze _In F Major For Violincello & Orchestra, TrV 178 [AV 75]

Cello – Thomas Grossenbacher



_Also Sprach Zarathustra_ , tone poem freely after Nietzsche, for orchestra, TrV 176 [Op. 30]

Violin – Primož Novšak

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich

Conductor – David Zinman

Discogs - Richard Strauss - Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, David Zinman - Orchestral Works

Arte Nova Classics – 74321 98495 2

Format: 7 x CD, Reissue

SOURCE - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt_iN-ytBvZxyzGsOuVfSVkSKXpJ4YXRJ

Archive Page - David Zinman Conducts Richard Strauss : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


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## feierlich (3 mo ago)

This is definitely one of my favourite Strauss tone poem cycles! The sound is just so vivid and detailed.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

How strange. I once bought a big box of Zinman's recordings and was pleasantly surprised by how he could deliver good performances of a wide range of composers. But I found the Strauss in that set really awful.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Is this just another packaging?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Zinman is a fine musician, and I suppose if you went to a concert and heard his Strauss you'd come away happy. On record though it's a different matter. I bought that set in its original incarnation and while the sound and playing are exemplary, I always get the feeling that he just can't let go and play the music for all it's worth. The same thing that made his Mahler cycle somewhat disappointing. Too controlled and tame. We know he can do it: his Rimsky-Korsakov on Philips and the some of his Telarc recordings are terrific - that Rachmaninoff 2nd is one of the best. That Beethoven cycle is wonderful. But if you put this Strauss package up against Kempe, Karajan, Solti or some others, what's missing is readily apparent. If you just want a complete Strauss set for the library and the performance quality is not a priority, this is fine: the sound, playing are first-rate.


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