Continue the journey…
We suggest five other works to explore after Symphonia Domestica
The near-graphic bedroom scene of Symphonia Domestica is exceeded by the enthusiastic love-making depicted in Strauss’s overture to Der Rosenkavalier. Yet his audiences were enchanted by the opera’s waltz sequences and by the exquisite music that accompanies the presentation of the silver rose. In the 1940s, the conductor Artur Rodzinski created an orchestral suite, including those highlights, for concert performance. (Cbso/andris Nelsons Orfeo C803091A).
While Strauss made his tone poems more explicit, ultimately moving into opera, an interesting alternative route is provided by Alexander Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau. Inspired by Strauss’s tone poems and composed virtually in parallel with Symphonia Domestica, its lush orchestration – just short of Strauss’s extravagant demands – and deftly drawn scenes from Andersen’s fairytale are recognisably Straussian. Yet Zemlinsky jettisoned his programme, leaving the music to speak for itself. (Royal Liverpool Po/vasily Petrenko Onyx 4197).
Strauss’s vivid depictions of the quotidian and of literary characters (as in Don
Quixote) was enthusiastically followed by Elgar in his symphonic study, Falstaff (1913). If the earthiness of Shakespeare’s vibrant character is somewhat muted, the physicality of events at The Boar’s Head and Gadshill are effectively balanced with tender episodes such as Falstaff’s dreams of his youth. (English Northern Philharmonia/ David Lloyd-jones Naxos 8.553879).
Once celebrated for his richly symbolic and lushly decadent poststraussian operas, Franz Schreker’s career was brutally quashed by the Nazis. Several of his overtures and interludes have achieved independent life, including the erotically charged
Act III interlude of his 1918 opera Der Schatzgräber (The Treasure Hunter) with its expressive solo violin and dazzling orchestration. (BBC Philharmonic/vassily Sinaisky Chandos CHAN 9797).
Though Strauss generally fell out of favour in England after World War I, Granville Bantock remained a loyal admirer. His Pagan Symphony, completed in 1928, is a ‘symphony’ in the manner of Domestica, and takes lively if innocent joy in luscious Strauss-style harmonies and orchestral colours. (Rpo/vernon Handley Hyperion CDA 66630).
Strauss’s vivid depictions were enthusiastically followed by Elgar