No one could be more delighted than I am that recordings of the Strauss tone-poems are pouring from the recording presses; nevertheless, I wonder if there is a crying need for all these duplications. It is, of course, easily understandable that conductors in sympathy with these works will want to record them, and if, like Ashkenazy, you have a Decca contract and the Cleveland Orchestra to play with, then what's to stop you?
Where Zarathustra and Tod und Verklarung are concerned, Karajan's DG performances, particularly those from 1984, are unrivalled as interpretations and performances, with recording quality to match. Only Sinopoli and Previn, who offer the same coupling on DG and Telarc respectively, present alternative versions that cannot be ignored, the former for its intelligent approach to the scores and the latter for the sheer beauty of the sound.
Tennstedt's EMI Zarathustra with the London Philharmonic is better as a recording than as an interpretation, but solely as a recording I prefer this new Decca issue, where Ashkenazy obtains a pianissimo that is still audible without one's having to fiddle with the knobs. The Cleveland strings make a lovely sound, but the brass tend to be strident in the final climax, though this is followed by an exceptionally tender and lyrical coda. The performance of the ''Tanzlied'' is flat-footed, with the solo violinist supplying little of the seductive charm that is ideally needed, but the tempo for this episode is preferable to Jarvi's ponderous pace in the Chandos recording.
Ashkenazy, I feel, has nothing exceptional to tell us about Zarathustra except that he enjoys it, whereas his Tod und Verklarung is more satisfying as an interpretation. Decca's recording is warm and full, with a sonorous gong-stroke at the moment of death. The Cleveland oboist gives much pleasure throughout. Yet I still prefer the Philharmonia performance under Kashif on ASV for its freshness and vitality. Inescapably, though, if you have Karajan performances of these works, you do not need to search further, except as self-indulgence.'