This album is not a reissue but a BBC recording of a concert, on an unspecified date at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It features Jessye Norman's smooth, golden, sensual voice under the direction of Klaus Tennstedt, a conductor from the former East Germany (the GDR at the time) who suddenly came out of the shadows when he crossed to the West and became established in Hamburg in 1979. Spotted by the major figures, he began a new career, notably at the head of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which appointed him principal conductor in 1983. He made a name for himself with a complete performance of Mahler's symphonies, which caused a sensation. That new impetus was soon shattered by poor health, putting an end to his career in 1995. He died near Kiel in 1998.
This recording, devoted entirely to Richard Strauss, includes a selection of five famous Lieder, sung in a particularly vibrant manner by an extremely inspired Jessye Norman, and beautifully rendered in an airy recording of superb spatiality. The rest of the programme consists of the suite Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, rather well Germanised by Strauss, who multiplies Lully's quotations and mockingly snide remarks. First performed in 1918, this stage music was not successful in the theatre but continues to be performed in concert. The highlight of the album is the final scene of Salomé sung by a simply imperial Jessye Norman. © François Hudry/Qobuz