TRACKLISTING
Salome

Austrian-born Clemens Krauss (31 March 1893 – 16 May 1954) was one of the great Strauss conductors of the first half of the twentieth century. He conducted the premieres of Arabella (1933), Friedenstag (1938), Capriccio (1942), and Der Liebe der Danae. His small recorded legacy for Decca includes several of the tone-poems as well as this legendary recording of Salome, made just two months before his sudden death while on tour in May 1954.

In the title role of the opera another vocal legend - Christel Goltz. Born in Dortmund on 8 July 1912, Goltz had some 120 operas in her repertory, a repertory which ranged from the Countess (Capriccio), Tosca, Elektra, Isolde, and Marie (Wozzeck). Goltz can also be heard as the Dyer’s Wife (Die Frau ohne Schatten) on the Decca recording with Karl Böhm (425 981-2).

“… Goltz pours forth her voice generously and untiringly and rises superbly to every climax of this taxing part ... and her closing scene is most thrilling … the scales are also heavily weighted in favour of Krauss and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor’s sensuously glowing and dramatically exciting account of the score is a sad reminder of what we have lost by his death [Krauss died on 16 May 1954 - just two months after the recording was completed]” (Gramophone, August 1954)