The ballet
Josephs Legende
(or
Josephslegende
), must be among the least performed of the mature orchestral works of
Richard Strauss
, although someone should choreograph it anew; that would bring its colorful orchestration alive. The ballet was planned to be danced by
Vaslav Nijinsky
, who pulled out, and
Strauss
even said that he found the topic of the "God-seeking" Joseph a tough slog. Moreover, the outbreak of World War I disrupted the work's creation. (
did, however, think enough of the music to create a simplified version of it in the 1940s.) The ballet, with a story partly by
Hugo von Hoffmannsthal
, treats the biblical story of Joseph (he of the coat of many colors) and his attempted seduction by Potiphar's Wife, lavishly illustrated in the graphics by a gorgeously sensual
Guido Reni
painting. One might say that the ballet resembles
Salome
minus most of the sex and most of the good tunes. It does not, however, lack spectacular orchestral work. The piece includes such novelties as a heckelphone (a kind of bass oboe), a contrabass clarinet, a two-player timpani, and four pairs of castanets. The large orchestral group is often broken down,
Mahler
-style, into chamber groups that may hold the stage for long stretches, and this is really ideal for displaying an orchestra's talents across a wide range of sounds. This recording marks the first by the
Staatskapelle Halle
, itself a fairly new group despite strands of history prior to its current formation, under its new conductor
Fabrice Bollon
. Sample the subtle textures of "Die Musik schildert Josephs Traum." The work has occasionally been recorded before, but this competent new reading will attract listeners to a little-known central German orchestra that specializes in the oversized. ~ James Manheim