Strauss Conducts Also Sprach Zarathustra-New Mastering

Richard Strauss
Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Richard Strauss, conductor
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Recorded on June 13, 1944
in Vienna

The historic nature of the present recording is well known. In June of 1944 Richard Strauss's 80th birthday was observed with a week of broadcast studio concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic with the composer conducting.

The provenance of the recordings themselves is unknown before the 1970s, when one of Strauss's sons presented tapes of the broadcasts to a record executive. There have been a lot of different suggestions to account for their existence, but the tapes are the best evidence. These are clearly not board feeds or airchecks. Although they were made on an early tape recorder, (Possibly a Magnetophone), it is likely that they were made at home by a member of the Strauss family from the actual broadcasts themselves. The over modulated levels and RF crosstalk from other radio stations is consistent with this.

We have offered this recording before, as have many others. This is a new 2023 restoration taken from the Preiser Edition, which is the best available. Our previous efforts were taken from the Turnabout and Vanguard issues, respectively. There is no cure for overmodulation even with modern technology, but it is possible to reduce its effects through re-shaping of the audio to a less noisy sound with fewer square waves. This is not a bad thing, because our opinion is that the equalization on prior editions is not altogether what it should be, mainly because consumer tape recordings as old as this are almost impossible to reference for alignment.

At present we feel that this is the best result possible. Strauss only took this into the studio once, and this is all that remains of that effort. Even with its flaws any recording of his genius on the podium is well worth treasuring.

We have come to understand from Google that this channel is the primary site for these recordings at present. This is the first new re-issue of this set of recordings, but we will be re-issuing them all, including the set from the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv.

Full acoustic restoration (2023): Paul Howard - The Yucaipa Studio

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