Jeff Dunn:

>Which of the Strauss tone poems (Salome, Elektra and Aus Italien don't
>count) is the worst?

Why not Aus Italien? It's nominally a symphony, but so is Alpensinfonie,
which you seem to consider a tone poem.

>The Alpine symphony has received critical pitons for many years.  For
>one thing, it first began to be heard when Strauss was already being
>considered passe, i.e., not Modernist enough.  For another, its title
>"symphony" implies a more cohesive structure than the highly incidental
>program music allows.  Those who impute greatness only to "absolute" music
>have the most to criticize here, since it about the time of the Alpine
>symphony that Strauss boasted he could easily describe even a knife and
>fork in music.

The Alpensinfonie has suffered for many years from very bad performances,
including Karajan's.  The best I've heard is Blomstedt's, surprisingly
enough (since he has no reputation as a Straussian).  The account reveals
a work of surprising depth and after hearing it, I wasn't knocked sideways
when I read in Del Mar's 3-volume study he intended it as a tribute to
Mahler.  It doesn't come up to Mahler, but so few symphonies do.

>The Domestic symphony is in the same non-absolutist boat, thanks to its
>detailed program.  ...

Absolutely irrelevant.  The symphony stands on its own without the program.

>And worst of all? Not the Domestic symphony!  It's the one I listen
>to the most.  ...  It's so preposterously inflated, with seven or eight
>endings, that I still can't stop giggling after all these years.  When the
>final F major chord strikes (best in the Jarvi version), I still cheer to
>the skies.

This is another work which takes a really great interpreter, especially in
the finale.  Almost everybody, including the superb Fritz Reiner, runs out
of gas.  The only recording I've heard that succeeds is Szell's, where the
coda to the coda to the coda comes off as wittily as a Haydn symphony.

>No, for me the worst is ...  "Ein Heldenleben," rated near or at the top
>by many.  For me, all it has going for it is the sarcastic music depicting
>the Hero's enemies, the same sort of stuff in the Salome Jewish arguments.
>All of the tunes fall flat for me.  Without the humor--heavy handed though
>it be in other Strauss works--all that shines through is the same hubris
>that others decry the Domestic symphony for.

I love Heldenleben.  The Critics and the Battle section are alone worth it
for me.  But I'm not necessarily looking for great tunes.

Steve Schwartz