Don Quixote, Also Sprach Zarathustra: Karajan / Vpo Fournier(Vc)Streng(Va)(1964 Salzburg)

Captured live in a gripping concert event dated 30 August 1964, at a point in time many consider the prime of his career or something very close to it, Herbert von Karajan here offers a dazzlingly powerful display of his mastery in music of Richard Strauss, specifically two of the composer's great tone poems, Don Quixote, op. 35 and Also Sprach Zarathustra, op. 30. He is ably aided by his soloists: Rudolf Streng, violist, member of the Vienna Philharmonic, founding member of the reformed Barylli Quartett active during the decade of the 1950s, and later to be heard in the Vienna Philharmonic String Quartet, and French cellist Pierre Fournier, one of the greatest at his instrument in the 20th c., known as the aristocrat of cellists in his lifetime for his lyricism and refinement. The Vienna Philharmonic, by this time fully rejuvenated from it's wartime decline, is in superb shape. In addition, von Karajan's Vienna recordings are treasured productions in a voluminous discography otherwise dominated by the Philharmonia and Berlin recordings.