To mark the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is now making previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to available for the first time on CD. Excerpts from Richard Strauss’s comic opera Die schweigsame Frau (“The Silent Woman”) were pre-produced as studio recordings for a television programme in November 1960. The impressive cast was almost identical to that of the opera production at the Salzburg Festival in 1959 under the premiere conductor Karl Böhm: Hans Hotter (Sir Morosus), Hermann Prey (Barber), Fritz Wunderlich (Henry) as well as Ingeborg Hallstein (Aminta) and many others sang. Here, Heinz Wallberg conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in contrast to the live recording from Salzburg, which is marred by the clearly audible stage noises of a turbulent production, the outstanding cast of singers in this recording is more effective.

After the death of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss thought he had reached the end of his operatic career – but then he found a librettist of equal calibre in Stefan Zweig, who provided him with “the best libretto for an opéra comique since Figaro” (Strauss). The comic opera was written between 1932 and 1935 and, despite the fact that Zweig was a Jewish librettist (who had since emigrated), Strauss managed to have the opera premiered in Dresden on 24 June 1935, conducted by Karl Böhm. However, because the composer insisted on printing Zweig’s name on the posters and in the programme, the Nazis boycotted the performance. And after the Gestapo intercepted a letter that Strauss had written to Zweig expressing his delight at the successful premiere, the composer finally fell out of favour. The opera was taken off the programme after only three performances, and was not performed at any other German theatre until 1946. Strauss resigned from the presidency of the Reich Chamber of Music “for health reasons”.