Search - Richard [1] Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky :: Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite; Ravel: Bolero; Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy

Splendid

David Saemann | 02/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you think of Charles Gerhardt only as a record producer and conductor of film scores, this CD should cause you to think again. The suite from Der Rosenkavalier recorded here lasts over 27 minutes, and ends appropriately with the ending of the opera. Gerhardt's performance is sprightly, idiomatic, and lush when called for. I really can't think of a better orchestra-only version of this score. Romeo and Juliet is lush and romantic when called for, and alternately thrilling. My favorite performance on the disc, however, is Bolero. It is the most recent of the three recordings, from 1971 (The Strauss is from 1964, the Tchaikovsky, 1968.). Also, Bolero is the only number to employ a non-freelance orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic (This assumes that the orchestra in the Strauss did not use a pseudonym.). This is about as exciting a Bolero as I ever have heard. There is tension all the way through, and the brass at the end are sensational. The recording engineer for all these selections was the veteran Decca engineer Kenneth Wilkinson. The recordings are uniformly full and well balanced, with just the slightest compromise in dynamic range. The transfer to CD seems to be everything it might be, comparable to the Mercury Living Presence CDs that were just beginning to come out at this time (1990). For a highly musical traversal of some famous showpieces, this CD would be hard to beat."