In Sunday’s (10/18) Buffalo News (New York), Mary Kunz Goldman writes, “The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s newest Naxos CD went beyond the dreams of BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta. Falletta laughs as she recalls conferring with Naxos chief Klaus Heymann over what repertoire should go on the disk. Her suggestion was Ottorino Respighi, whose music the BPO has explored in the past. Heymann had bigger ideas. … Heymann proposed Richard Strauss, a ‘big music’ composer if ever there was one. He and Falletta settled on three very different masterpieces. The first was a suite from Strauss’ popular opera ‘Der Rosenkavalier.’ Second would come a fantasy based on ‘The Woman Without a Shadow,’ an opera Strauss wrote on supernatural themes. And rounding out the recording would be music drawn from an almost never-performed Strauss ballet, ‘The Legend of Joseph.’ … Falletta described the music as ‘deeply personal.’ She says the performances are as vivid as they are because the musicians, who recorded the pieces live in Kleinhans Music Hall, threw themselves into them.” Falletta says she tried to encourage soloists’ own interpretations of solos.
Posted October 20, 2009
