SACD, Strauss, R (composer)
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Special offer. Richard Strauss: Elektra
RecommendedIréne Theorin (Elektra), Jennifer Holloway (Chrysothemis), Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Klytemnestra), Nikolai Schukoff (Aegisth), Iain Paterson (Orest), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs, Edward Gardner
Gardner’s conducting gives maximum scope to the phenomenal range of light and shade conjured by Strauss’s orchestration, all delivered superbly by the Bergen Philharmonic. While there’s no shortage... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 27th February 2026
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2026, Opera Choice
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These militant, tightly controlled, sometimes breathtaking performances demand to be heard and may divide opinion. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2022, Finalist - Orchestral
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Richard Strauss: Salome
Malin Byström (Salome), Johan Reuter (Jochanaan), Katarina Dalayman (Herodias), Gerhard Siegel (Herodes), Bror Magnus Tødenes (Narraboth), Hanna Hipp (Herodias's Page)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Strauss’s score remains one of the most astounding of all time, operatic and otherwise, and it’s a high achievement indeed that the Bergen Philharmonic’s playing under Edward Gardner, stunningly... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2025, Recording of the Month
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International Opera Awards, 2025, Shortlisted - Complete Recording
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International Classical Music Awards, 2026, Nominated - Opera
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this celebration of song is infused with heartfelt joy. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Shortlist, Finalist - Song
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Special offer. Strauss, R: Elektra
RecommendedJeanne-Michèle Charbonnet (Elektra), Angela Denoke (Chrysothemis), Dame Felicity Palmer (Clytemnestra), Matthias Goerne (Orestes), Ian Storey (Aegisthus)
London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
[Gergiev] conveys passions and tensions with compelling, sometimes deafening power...[Charbonnet is] strongly involved without, thankfully, overplaying the weirdness...[Palmer's Klytaemnestra... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 9th July 2012
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New. German Opera Scenes and Arias
Malin Byström (soprano), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Søndergård
...she really is in her element, pouring out the voice and creating a suitably fevered sound world. In this she is supported by conductor Thoman Sondergard, who balances his soprano against... —
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Soirée
RecommendedMagdalena Kožená (mezzo), Sir Simon Rattle (piano), Rahel Rilling (violin), Wolfram Brandl (violin), Yulia Deyneka (viola), David Adorjan (cello), Andrew Marriner (clarinet)
There is some lovely singing from Kožená, whose fawn-tinted mezzo retains its attractive quality from her earliest discs…She sings the two Brahms collections well, especially the Ophelia Songs,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 13th September 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Assorted Program
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Special offer. R. Strauss: Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration & Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Honeck's interpretations have huge personality, and mostly in the right way. He's not averse to Stokowski-style touchings-up if they help the drama...Honeck likes to underline something pathological... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2014, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Strauss, R: Salome
Emily Magee (Salome), Wolfgang Koch (Jochanaan), Michaela Schuster (Herodias), Peter Bronder (Herodes), Benjamin Bruns (Narraboth)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Andres Orozco-Estrada
What we gain here in exemplary clarity of Strauss’s sonic spider-web we lose in momentum for, say, the climactic welter which ends in Jokanaan’s curse…Magee as the spoiled princess propels the... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2018, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Shortlisted - Opera
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A New Century
Orchestral Works by Beethoven, Varèse, Staud, R. Strauss, Deutsch & Prokofiev
Paul Jacobs (piano)
Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Overall, [the performances] paint a picture of sovereign technical command, with an upholstered warmth of tone not automatically in the DNA of American orchestras…the Cleveland Orchestra has... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2020, Recording of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, September 2020, Recording of the Month
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