Search - Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Staatskapelle Dresden :: Strauss: Josephs Legende [Legend of Joseph]

A Neglected Ballet That Deserves Better

D. A Wend | Buffalo Grove, IL USA | 12/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Josephs Legende is a work that may not be classed among the best of Richard Strauss but it is among his most interesting works. The music contains elements of Salome and something of his next opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten. It was a chore for the composer to write with a wordy and symbolic scenerio by Hoffmannsthal and Count Harry Kessler, but he managed to overcome these hurdles his objections to write a work conveying great passion. The ballet was written for the Ballet Russe, and Nijinsky was to dance the role of Joseph and choreograph the dances. By the time the music was ready, Nijinsky had been fired by Diaghilev and replaced by Massine. The ballet is definately something for Straussians. It is not a good introduction to Strauss's music but will be interesting to anyone who has heard Salome, Elektra and the earlier tone poems. The performance by Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Dresden Staatskapelle is marvelous and brings out the seductive magic of the music."

Some lovely things but lots of filler, too

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 10/11/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As much as I adore Strauss - at its best, his music will aways feature at the top of my favourites list - I have learned to my cost not to be a Strauss "completist". Hence "Guntram" was cast aside and while there is far more to delight the ear in this neglected ballet, no-one could possibly place it in the first rank of his works. Strauss was too much the professional to shirk a contractual obligation but he procrastinated, raided an earlier, discarded ballet and generally dragged his feet over this one as he felt little sympathy - modern materialist as he was, despite the yearning transcendence of his best music - with the biblical subject matter. Yet he had managed to do a fine job with "Salome"; perhaps that is why we hear frequent sub-"Salome" echoes and more than a hint of what was to come in "Die Frau Ohne Schatten". This is sub-par Strauss, containing some wonderful moments - particularly the theme allotted to Poptiphar's Wife - but generally lacking inspiration and requiring the listener to endure some longueurs. I still take it down from the shelves occasionally to here Sinopoli's masterly direction of a great orchestra - and a great, big orchestra, at that, this music requiring an orchestra as large as that needed for the "Alpine Symphony" - but it's probably one of those "justly neglected" pieces that Strauss himself was not especially proud of. After its premiere in 1914 it was revived in 1947, but hardly since, and Sinopoli and DG have done us a favour by giving it the best advocacy possible in this excellent recording of a live, concert performance. Remember, Strauss dubbed himself a "first-rate second-rate composer". At his best, he's better than that but this work conforms to the self-deprecatory category he describes. Having said all that, the climax is powerful and effective because Strauss was always a theatrical animal. The Santa Fe listener is a little harsh in entitling his review "a gem of banality", but I know what he means... even if (to paraphrase Beecham) I still derive pleasure from the sheer noise this music makes."