Richard Strauss: Macbeth, Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung & Festmarsch in C Staatskapelle Weimar & Kirill Karabits

• Richard Strauss (1864-1949):
• 1 Macbeth, tone poem for orchestra, Op. 23 (TrV 163) 21:09
• 2 Don Juan, tone poem for orchestra, Op. 20 (TrV 156) 17:21
• 3 Tod und Verklärung ('Death and Transfiguration'), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 24 [TrV 158] 25:17
• 4 Festmarsch in C Major for orchestra, TrV 157 06:45
• Total Runtime 01:10:32

Info for Richard Strauss: Macbeth, Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung & Festmarsch in C

When, in 1889, Strauss assumed his office as Grand Ducal Saxon Kapellmeister, he wrote: “To Weimar, where Liszt worked for so long…” Kirill Karabits leads the Staatskapelle Weimar through Strauss’ three early tone poems composed during that time. Strauss himself described these works as “a completely new path”. The contemporaneous Festmarsch is a true rarity.

Following the release of Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Kirill Karabits dedicates his next audite recording with the Weimar Staatskapelle to the "Weimar" Strauss.

Weimar was not only the metropolis of the classical era that acquired world fame thanks to Goethe and Schiller. Weimar was also the domain of great musicians: Franz Liszt served as Kapellmeister in the city and invented the genre of the symphonic poem. Richard Strauss followed in his footsteps when he, as Kapellmeister from 1889 until 1894, presented his own first symphonic poems, "Macbeth" and "Don Juan", at the helm of the Weimar court orchestra. Kirill Karabits, Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsches Nationaltheater since 2016, now presents, alongside today's Weimar Staatskapelle, not only these two major works of his great predecessor, but also "Tod und Verklärung", which Strauss had completed in Weimar. The contemporaneous Festmarsch in C major, TrV157 - Strauss' anniversary gift to "Die Wilde Gung'l", the Munich orchestra he had conducted in his youth - is a true rarity, rounding off this recording.

Next month, audite will be presenting "Don Juan" with Ferenc Fricsay and the RIAS Symphony Orchestra in what promises to provide an intriguing historical comparison.

Staatskapelle Weimar
Kirill Karabits, conductor

Kirill Karabits
a native of Ukraine, studied conducting and composition at the Lysenko Music School in Kiev, then at the National Music Academy of Ukraine "Peter Tchaikovsky" and at the Vienna Academy of Music. He was principal guest conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and junior conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In concert, Kirill Karabits has worked with orchestras such as the Cleveland, Philadelphia and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro La Fenice and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he conducted the Russian National Orchestra on a tour of the USA and in two concerts at the Edinburgh International Festival. This summer he made his debut at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In the opera field, guest engagements include Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, Wagner Geneva Festival and Hamburg State Opera. In 2015, a new production of Khovantchina was staged under his direction at Theater Basel. He is the artistic director of the I, CULTURE Orchestra, an orchestra of young musicians from Poland and other Eastern European countries. At the same time, the Ukrainian-born conductor has been principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra since 2008; in recognition of his work in the UK, he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2013. From 2016/17 Kirill Karabits is General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the German National Theatre and the Staatskapelle Weimar. This season, in addition to symphony concerts, he will conduct Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Weimar and Boris Godunow at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. At the Stuttgart Opera, Karabits will take over the musical direction of the new production of Death in Venice.

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