Strauss: Death And Transfiguration (1942) Toscanini/Philadelphia

[@steveluciani]

This wonderful performance has never sounded better, to my ears. Thanks so much, Paul, for the early Christmas present!

[@leestamm3187]

A great performance of the Strauss masterwork, beautifully restored. Thanks, Paul.

[@IAmJimRetzer]

I was working at the Phoenix Symphony in the late 90s - early 2000s when they put on a program initially titled Death, Grief and Transfiguration, with this piece as the obvious centerpiece. The orchestra members - in their own puckish way - referred to it as Death and Asphyxiation. Weirdly, although the concert title had been vetted, approved and published in the series catalogue as Death, Grief and Transfiguration, certain "friends of the Symphony" (read: major donors) didn't like the title and said it was "too depressing." So, the Box Office and Marketing team had to scramble to come up with a new title that wouldn't "creep out" our "friends." The title we eventually decided on was "Passages," because it was neutral, descriptive and tied into musical vocabulary.

[@snapfinger1]

Toscanini’s command of Wagner & Richard Strauss is uncanny.

[@dorfmanjones]

The bass is just not sufficiently present. Drum rolls nearly inaudible at the climax of the Transfiguration. Perhaps it's the sound engineering which to my ears is wan in all AT's Philadelphia recordings. (Jascha Horenstein gets the palm in this work.)

[@RS3DArchive]

Interesting comment. There is no shortage of bass in the current edition that I am aware of. Only the slightest noise reduction for rumble has been applied.