I think you will love this music too: David Zinman Conducts Richard Strauss

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

David Zinman Conducts Richard Strauss

This is my post from this week's Tuesday Blog.

Other than updates to old posts, the one 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 20^th 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!