Strauss Richard: Josephs Legende

Solyom, Stefan, Staatskapelle Weimar

CPO 777902

During a guest performance in Berlin in 1913 Richard Strauss saw Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and was so delighted by them that he declared his readiness to compose the ballet pantomime Josephs Legende (Joseph's Legend) for this extraordinary ensemble. The librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal had also become acquainted with the Ballets Russes as »the practically unlimited pleasure of pure sensuous joy.« The story of the Joseph legend was not new territory for Strauss inasmuch as the Bible and the Orient had previously supplied him with material for his Salome. Moreover, the subject matter offered yet one more variation on an old Strauss theme: love between an older woman and a youth. Potiphar's wife belongs to the magnificently sultry world of wealth and power and feels sexual desire for an unspoiled shepherd boy, a dancer and a dreamer, who »has not yet been together with a woman.« To depict the sumptuous sound world of the Orient, Strauss exploits all the resources the late-romantic orchestra has to offer. Instead of producing a mixed sound, however, he relies on harsh contours. This is music full of clarity, mental acuity, and immediacy of expression.

CD x 1

CPO

5/28/14

761203790227