Post by erik on Oct 23, 2021 12:57:22 GMT -5
Throughout much of his life, when he wasn't making larger-than-life musical statements via the symphonic poem or the opera stage, Richard Strauss had a propensity for channeling Mozart. One such example is the work in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
R. Strauss: SERENADE FOR 13 WINDS IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 7
If Richard Strauss’ best-known works were large-scale orchestral tone poems where the orchestration rivaled that of Richard Wagner or Gustav Mahler, then as a young man a lot of his works were clearly of equal ambition but of a smaller scale. This was true in his teenage years of the early 1880’s; and one of the greatest early examples of this was his 1882 Serenade For 13 Winds In E Flat Major. In form and size, this serenade, scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, flutes, and bassoons, one contrabassoon, and four French horns, has its roots in his and his father Franz’s appreciation for the wind serenade music of Mozart, particularly that composer’s three serenades (nos. 10, 11, 12) that were strictly for wind players. Richard’s writing for these wind players, while every bit as tricky as one would expect for the mid-to-late Romantic era, was nevertheless also of the variety and complexity that Mozart would certainly have found more than a little familiar, even though it is also, at nine minutes, one of Strauss’ shortest single orchestral works. The serenade had its premiere in Dresden on November 27, 1882 under the direction of Franz Wullner, who ironically had led the first Munich premiere’s of “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walkure”, the first two operas of Wagner’s magnum opus “Ring” cycle, and it was a significant success. Both chamber and symphonic orchestra wind sections have kept this serenade in their repertoire ever since.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/PAAVO BERGLUND (RCA)
Included:
DON JUAN, OP. 20
TILL EULENSPIEGEL’S MERRY PRANKS, OP. 28
BURLESKE IN D MINOR FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA, AV. 85 (Piano: SERGEI EDELMAN)
R. Strauss: SERENADE FOR 13 WINDS IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 7
If Richard Strauss’ best-known works were large-scale orchestral tone poems where the orchestration rivaled that of Richard Wagner or Gustav Mahler, then as a young man a lot of his works were clearly of equal ambition but of a smaller scale. This was true in his teenage years of the early 1880’s; and one of the greatest early examples of this was his 1882 Serenade For 13 Winds In E Flat Major. In form and size, this serenade, scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, flutes, and bassoons, one contrabassoon, and four French horns, has its roots in his and his father Franz’s appreciation for the wind serenade music of Mozart, particularly that composer’s three serenades (nos. 10, 11, 12) that were strictly for wind players. Richard’s writing for these wind players, while every bit as tricky as one would expect for the mid-to-late Romantic era, was nevertheless also of the variety and complexity that Mozart would certainly have found more than a little familiar, even though it is also, at nine minutes, one of Strauss’ shortest single orchestral works. The serenade had its premiere in Dresden on November 27, 1882 under the direction of Franz Wullner, who ironically had led the first Munich premiere’s of “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walkure”, the first two operas of Wagner’s magnum opus “Ring” cycle, and it was a significant success. Both chamber and symphonic orchestra wind sections have kept this serenade in their repertoire ever since.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/PAAVO BERGLUND (RCA)
Included:
DON JUAN, OP. 20
TILL EULENSPIEGEL’S MERRY PRANKS, OP. 28
BURLESKE IN D MINOR FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA, AV. 85 (Piano: SERGEI EDELMAN)