A New Year's Eve Concert
CD
RRP £7.25 historic list price — see live Amazon pricing below
- Composer
- Strauss, Richard
- Performers
- Abbado, Claudio, Stade, Frederica von, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Battle, Kathleen, Argerich, Martha, Fleming, Renée
- Label
- Classical
- Barcode
- 5099705256527
Amazon.co.uk This disc was actually taken from a 1992 New Year's Eve concert in Berlin. It features a star line-up of soloists, although Renée Fleming, Katherine Battle and Frederica von Stade, in the famous trio that closes Der Rosenkavalier, aren't the perfectly matched team that you might expect. Abbado's Straussian credentials are still largely untested: he gets some excellent playing from his Berlin forces in the tone poems--Till Eulenspiegel is enjoyably vibrant--but there are many preferable options around. What makes this disc more than just a memento of the occasion is Martha Argerich's outstanding, and astounding performance of the Burleske. Strauss rather lost interest in this early (1885) piece, probably because it's Brahms-meets-Liszt concoction quickly sounded passé. Yet it's a terrific display piece, imaginatively orchestrated and cleverly put together. Argerich pulls out the stops as only she can, forcing Abbado and the orchestra to raise their game in the process. Sound verges on the aggressive, but matches Argerich's fireworks perfectly. --Richard Whitehouse
This recording is part of the ClassicalMusicStore.co.uk heritage catalogue. The store is no longer trading, but you can find this title — and thousands of other classical and jazz recordings — at a specialist retailer.
Buy on AmazonAmazon price history
Live new & used price history (last 2 years) via Keepa.