# If you could only take one Richard Strauss work to a desert island



## LOLWUT (Oct 12, 2016)

What work would it be?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

_Eine Alpensinfonie_.

Not just because it's my favourite thing by Strauss, but also because of the irony.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Ein Heldenleben


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Metamorphosen...


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

_Metamorphosen _for me too.

Should probably be _Salome _but I have a feeling I'd get tired of it faster.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Eine Alpensinfonie. Except I would take it to the most secluded, lonely village in the Bavarian Alps, instead of a desert island


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

_Der Rosenkavalier_. Especially that final trio, the music Strauss himself had played at his funeral.


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

Metamorphosen, that'd be it for me :tiphat:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Well, doggone. I was going to say Metamorphosen, but it doesn't look like I'm much of an original thinker. How about Four Last Songs? It will prepare me for the inevitable death from starvation.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

_Four last songs_, I'd need something downbeat as I don't thing I would last long on a desert Island. Hey Manx you had the same idea as me at the same time - telepathy! (Useful for getting off that desert island...)


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Probably Four Last Songs or Metamorphosen.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Four Last Songs with Gundula Janowitz accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan.

Soaringly beautiful music with a performance fully worthy of the music.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I'd be torn between the _Last Four Songs_ with Szell and Schwarzkopf or _Rosenkavalier_ with Karajan and Schwarzkopf.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

The first horn concerto.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Strauss at his best - Four Last Songs. Metamorphosen would be next.


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## Resurrexit (Apr 1, 2014)

Rosenkavalier. Ein Heldenleben a close second.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Death and Transfiguration, probably. 

Maybe.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I'd be torn between the *Last Four Songs with Szell and Schwarzkopf* or _Rosenkavalier_ with Karajan and Schwarzkopf.


That would be my choice.


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

Alpine Symphony!


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Salome or Elektra.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Four Last Songs for me too, sung by Lucia Popp of course.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am not familiar with much Strauss other than the Four Last Songs, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Capriccio. Among those, it would probably be Die Frau ohne Schatten (preferably on DVD).


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Till Eulenspiegel.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

just one - then* final trio from Rosenkavalier* with Kiri Te Kanawa


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Don Quixote, the piece which helped me to discover the straussian world.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Four Last Songs - Janowitz / Karajan - no contest


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Like many others: Four last songs, just ahead of Metamorphosen.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

This is hard pick, but maybe Zarathustra for me.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

It's 'An Alpine Symphony' for me but another one that is very close behind and hasn't been mentioned is the Oboe Concerto, which is wonderful and really brings out the beauty of the oboe.


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## Oscarf (Dec 13, 2014)

Four last songs AND Metamorphosen. I know it is cheating but they both fit in a single CD


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## BoggyB (May 6, 2016)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Eine Alpensinfonie. Except I would take it to the most secluded, lonely village in the Bavarian Alps, instead of a desert island


+1

It may be a tone poem, but to me it's a symphony.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

That's a difficult question, for I like Strauss' music immensely. But forced to choose the one to take to that island, I would pick Die Frau ohne Schatten. I easily could have picked Don Quixote, my favorite of his tone poems, but Die Frau is a remarkable achievement, for its power, its scope, its vision, and it demonstrates the best Strauss could do. 

And Solti, the VPO, soloists, and choruses (under Decca), must continue be thanked for pulling that project off so convincingly. What a difference a recording can make.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Orfeo said:


> That's a difficult question, for I like Strauss' music immensely. But forced to choose the one to take to that island, I would pick *Die Frau ohne Schatten*.


There is something about that opera that reminds me of Wagner's operas.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

_Capriccio..........._


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Friendlyneighbourhood said:


> Metamorphosen, that'd be it for me :tiphat:


Yeah. Playing that should really impress those wild women on the island or as we say, music to open coconuts by.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

schigolch said:


> _Capriccio..........._


This seems like a good idea.


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## alan davis (Oct 16, 2013)

Der Rosenkavalier, pretty good stuff for a composer who saw himself as a First Class, second rate composer.


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## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Four Last Songs...


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## GAJ (Oct 15, 2016)

Jessye Norman's Four Last Songs (Or should that only be one?.....How could I possibly select one????)


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## Guest (Oct 24, 2016)

It would have to be Four Last Songs... His three great operas next, but it's less desert island material


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

GAJ said:


> Jessye Norman's Four Last Songs (Or should that only be one?.....How could I possibly select one????)


Listen to Lucia Popp and you forget all the others.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Dim7 said:


> Ein Heldenleben


Nope, Death and Transfiguration after all.... I had to bump this thread only to tell that.

Ein Heldenleben has some not quite ideally excellent moments, unlike Death and Transfiguration.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Eine Alpensinfonie - no question. Ashkenazy / Cleveland recording.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

A DVD of Salome. Beheadings are so out of style these days.


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## ahinton (Nov 8, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Four Last Songs for me too, sung by Lucia Popp of course.


What? Not by la Fleming?(!)...

There's just no way that I could take only one - or twenty - so I'd have to pass on that desert island trip, I'm afraid


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## ahinton (Nov 8, 2016)

hpowders said:


> A DVD of Salome. Beheadings are so out of style these days.


For that, off with yours, sir! (no offence intended, of course)...


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I see that I have inadvertently failed to post here. I shall remedy that. Sometime!


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Ein Heldenleben. It would be a tough choice as to which recording, since I like Haitink/Concertgebouw, Mehta/Los Angeles Philharmonic, Szell/Cleveland Orchestra, Beecham/Royal Philharmonic and Reiner/Chicago Symphony. In a near photo finish, I think it would be Reiner/Chicago.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Haydn67 said:


> Ein Heldenleben. It would be a tough choice as to which recording, since I like Haitink/Concertgebouw, Mehta/Los Angeles Philharmonic, Szell/Cleveland Orchestra, Beecham/Royal Philharmonic and Reiner/Chicago Symphony. In a near photo finish, I think it would be Reiner/Chicago.


I remember that Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra had a good performance. I used to listen to it as a kid.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

For me it would certainly be the Vier letzte Lieder


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Burleske for Piano and Orchestra. I know it's "slight;" but it seems so good-natured and unpretentious. I especially like the Janis/Reiner/Chicago recording.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Four last song ! ( Lucia Popp)


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## Rhinotop (Jul 8, 2016)

Also sprach Zarathustra (although the Alpine Symphony sounds too tempting)


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

hpowders said:


> I remember that Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra had a good performance. I used to listen to it as a kid.


I remember the first time I heard Heldenleben, sometime around 1959-60 when I was in high school. I had been listening over Coral Gables radio station WVCG, which was the one to go to for classical music in South Florida. I'm pretty sure it was a live concert performance brought in through New York. Though I'm not certain of the conductor, Karl Bohm's name seems to stick in my mind. At that time, I was only just beginning to develop a serious interest in classical music. The first time I ever spun Heldenleben on a vinyl lp was at the FSU music library several years later...and, wouldn't you know, it was the Ormandy/Philadelphia recording. Years later, I came to own that recording, as I did other Heldenlebens, however it was given up as I pared down my collection. The five mentioned above remain along with Kempe, Leinsdorf and Karajan's first stereo version from 1959....Enough! No more Heldenlebens!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Rhinotop said:


> Also sprach Zarathustra (although the Alpine Symphony sounds too tempting)


I would put then the other way around. 
Alpine Symphony first.


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