KARAJAN OPERAS

RICHARD STRAUSS: SALOME
Hildegard Behrens, José van Dam Agnes Baltsa & Karl-Walter Böhm
Wiener Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

{CMS 5 67080 2 UK}
{7243 5 67080 Europe}
{Angel 5 67080}
(2 CDs}

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Academy Award, Japan

"A ravishingly beautiful set: the cast and the orchestral playing are superb, and the recording provides a rich carpet of sound. Karajan's concept of the opera is marvellously consistent and single-minded, and from first to last sensuous beauty is the keynote" Gramophone

Another Richard Strauss opera in a virtually ideal performance. Recorded in Vienna in 1977-8, the multi-track stereo recording has been re-mixed and remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Andrew Walter and the original sessions engineer, James Lock, for this reissue.

Based on Oscar Wilde's play, Strauss's opera deals with the story, from St. Matthew's Gospel, of the death of John the Baptist (known in the opera as Jochanaan), who is the subject of the infatuation of Salome, daughter of Herodias, the second wife and sister-in-law of King Herod. Salome, famously, demands the head of John when Herod offers her whatever she chooses for dancing for him.

For this recording, Karajan chose Hildegard Behrens as his Salome, and matched her with José van Dam as the Prophet, Agnes Baltsa as the Queen and Karl-Walter Böhm as Herod.