Eloquence Classics

On 11th June 1944, Karl Böhm conducted ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ at the Vienna State Opera. It was, in his own words, ‘despite the dark shadows cast by the war which was already long since lost, a feast for musical Vienna’. The occasion was the 80th birthday of Richard Strauss ­which would have undoubtedly been celebrated throughout the whole world of music had it not fallen at that sombre time; a few months later the closing of all German and Austrian theatres was one of the many signs of the inexorable approach of destruction and defeat. For Strauss, however, the celebration performance in Vienna signified one of the triumphal high spots of a lifetime rich in successes and fame.

Böhm said of ‘Ariadne’ that, together with ‘Elektra’, it had always been his favourite among Strauss’ stage works and that with it he attained his first great public and critical success.

He recorded the work twice for Deutsche Grammophon – a ‘live’ recording in 1954 and this much rarer and much sought-after studio recording made in 1969 with a superb cast that included Hildegard Hillebrecht, Reri Grist, Jess Thomas, Tatiana Troyanos and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau which now receives its first international release on CD.

Collectors will be interested to learn that the set includes the notes that accompanied the original LP release, a synopsis and details of all the musicians who participated in the recording (including three members of the Koeckert Quartet).