Christoph von Dohnányi, Wiener Philharmoniker - Richard Strauss: Don Juan, Metamorphosen, Tod und Verklärung (1992)

This is a marvel. Save for a needlessly patronizing booklet-note, and for some unexpectedly poor brass tuning at a climactic point of DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION (the third of this disc's pieces), it would be flawless. While Dohnanyi fortunately takes his time over all these tone-poems (METAMORPHOSEN becomes insufferable if its conductor permits any suggestion of impatience), he never drags. Rather, one simply feels - as so often with, say, Solti's interpretations - that details (for instance, some string counterpoint in DON JUAN which most conductors couldn't be bothered to clarify) have been made freshly audible, thanks to the VPO's fierce virtuosity and to its helmsman's long-range vision of the music. Compared with these performances, conveyed via a superbly vivid recording - each timpani and cymbal stroke is captured with heart-stopping assurance - even hitherto acceptable accounts like Karl Boehm's sound both dull and generalized. No Straussian should think of overlooking this CD; its reviewer in the November-December 1992 issue of AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE rightly said, "I urge everyone to buy it."