IDAGIO | Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Featuring

Paavo Järvi
NHK Symphony Orchestra
Richard Strauss

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Performer Biography

Paavo Järvi is the founder of the Pärnu Music Festival, the Järvi Academy, and the Estonian Festival Orchestra, and actively supports Estonian composers.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded live at the NHK Symphony Orchestra's Subscription Concerts No. 1831 in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, on February 17 & 18, 2016.

Interpretation

When conducting "Zarathustra," Paavo Järvi focuses on giving each section a personal and individual character, using the section titles as a guideline rather than taking Nietzsche's words literally.

Performer Biography

Paavo Järvi, the conductor on this album, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein.

Compositional Technique

The conductor, Paavo Järvi, notes that the orchestration of Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is superb, with stunning virtuosity and complex polyphonic writing that achieves structural clarity.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Richard Strauss considered "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "Metamorphosen" to fit well together on an album due to their serious and philosophical subject matter.

Compositional Technique

Richard Strauss's "Metamorphosen" concludes with quotations from the funeral march of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, which Paavo Järvi interprets as a statement of mourning.