A Concerto For The Don

Quite early in my classical collecting, I acquired most of the tone poems of Richard Strauss. They don't fit as well with my tastes as they have developed but I do still admire them and this disk fills in a notable gap with a performance of Don Quixote by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conducted by David Zinman. It marks the final volume of a survey they did of Strauss's orchestral works and it also includes the Romanze in F major for cello and orchestra and the Serenade in E flat major for 13 wind instruments. Don Quixote is a programmatic work wound around depictions of several of the major incidents from the novel but in another context it is virtually a cello concerto since the "part" of the Don is played by the cello throughout. at times it is a double concerto with the viola used to portray Quixote's sidekick Sancho Panza. There is also a minor part for oboe as the character Dulcinella. The principal soloists here are Thomas Grossenbacher cello ( also in the Romanze ) and Michel Rouilly viola. The Romanze and Serenade make enticing fillers and the main work tells the tale in an entrancing mix of variation, lietmotif and concerto form.