May: R. Strauss - Don Quixote

[bombasticDarren]

Thanks for helping me get this started everyone. Regrettably I have managed to make myself busy three nights of this week (a very rare thing!); I hope to begin work proper on Friday pm. Apologies.

[Diapason]

Good, that should give my discs time to arrive.

[Jared]

I will be listening to the Kempe/ Tortelier version mentioned above, and this:

[Jose Echenique]

Gentlemen, if like Sean you don't own Don Quixote or indeed many of the Strauss Orchestral works, then I would STRONGLY recommend the 9 CD Kempe set with the SD... it has recently been re-issued by Brilliant at a highly competitive price and is quite simply a standard-bearer in this repertoire... sooner or later, you will end up purchasing this set, so you might as well do so now...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Strauss ... 402&sr=1-1

;-)

In preference to Reiner and the CSO! WOW! It must be good.

Uh-oh! My lovely wife has just informed me that my Bach CDs arrived this morning.

We are talking very high standards Sean, both, Reiner and Kempe are magnificent, superb, and it´s a gloriously, maddening difficult choice. And we haven´t even consider Szell´s great Strauss recordings, especially his sublime Don Quixote with Pierre Fournier.
And let´s not forget Karajan, who can never be easily dismissed in R. Strauss.
My own choice would be Reiner, but I could never live without the others.

[DaveF]

I've had this set for a while but never really gave it a proper listen. Going to sit down now to listen to the Don Quixote.

[Seán]

Gentlemen, if like Sean you don't own Don Quixote or indeed many of the Strauss Orchestral works, then I would STRONGLY recommend the 9 CD Kempe set with the SD... it has recently been re-issued by Brilliant at a highly competitive price and is quite simply a standard-bearer in this repertoire... sooner or later, you will end up purchasing this set, so you might as well do so now...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Strauss ... 402&sr=1-1

;-)

In preference to Reiner and the CSO! WOW! It must be good.

Uh-oh! My lovely wife has just informed me that my Bach CDs arrived this morning.

We are talking very high standards Sean, both, Reiner and Kempe are magnificent, superb, and it´s a gloriously, maddening difficult choice. And we haven´t even consider Szell´s great Strauss recordings, especially his sublime Don Quixote with Pierre Fournier.
And let´s not forget Karajan, who can never be easily dismissed in R. Strauss.My own choice would be Reiner, but I could never live without the others.

Pepe, when I read post earlier today I was reminded that I do, of course, have a copy of von Karajan conducting the BPO in Don Quixote, it's on the EMI set:

[bombasticDarren]

Firstly, thanks for your patience and spirited debate on the merits of various recordings so far....

...and secondly I will begin our discussion on Don Quixote, or Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character) if you prefer...

Strauss completed DQ in 1895 during a period when he was feted in the main for his tone poetry. Chronologically DQ falls just after Also sprach Zarathustra, and before Ein Heldenleben. Although not a concerto per se, it does contain detailed parts for solo cello (representing the character of Don Quixote) and solo viola (plus tuba) (Sancho Panza). As often as not you will see the section leaders of the orchestra playing these parts - although some of the previous posts also remind us that cello virtuosi have also coveted the role of Don Quixote.

Cervantes orginal novel which provides the source material was published early in the 17th century. I won't bog us down in the 'plot', but a summary is useful. To assist with this I summon forth Wikipedia:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote_de_la_Mancha

The key points regarding character are that Don Quixote himself is a Spanish gentleman from La Mancha who, taking the chivalric novels he devours as read, decides to set off on misguided adventures of his own as a knight-errant. Don Quixote is a character who, in the area of chivalry, experiences a blurring between reality and fantasy. Sancho Panza is a simple man who takes on the role of Don Quixote's manservant on the (false) basis that he will be offered governorship of an island. When the two get together, adventures ensue....



Instrumentally Strauss employs a fairly large romantic orchestra as follows -piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat (2nd doubling clarinet in E-flat), bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns in F, 3 trumpets in D and F, 3 trombones, tenor tuba in B-flat, tuba , timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, wind machine (!), harp, violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

After a brief introduction the piece settles into a set of variations on a theme, which cherry pick key episodes from the novel. I will go through the work in manageable sections using the Reiner recording below: the soloists are John Weicher (cello) and Milton Preves (viola).




Introduction Don Quixote loses his sanity after reading novels about knights, and decides to become a knight-errant

The introduction doesn't settle into any particularly discernable theme but, as inidcated in the subtitle, has plenty of heroic horn calls to represent the knightly delusion, and skittering strings which remind us that Don Quixote may not be of sound mind. As far as I can judge this is a spirited and effective introduction. Initially it bounces along quite merrily, and then serene, until the aforementioned horn and strings interrupt the painstakingly evoked pastorale mood. My initial thinking is I have been too hard on poor old Richard Strauss. We shall see...

[Jared]

^^ thanks Darren, that's a great start...

[fergus]

.... My initial thinking is I have been too hard on poor old Richard Strauss. We shall see...

You will find that, like Don Quixote, the music of R Strauss will become quite loveable once you become any way acquainted with it!!

[fergus]

Darren, my daughter is in the middle of year end exams at the moment so there are long periods of silence imposed in our household. I therefore cannot use my system nearly as much as I would like and I dislike using headphones. All should be restored to normal later this week where I will weigh in after I get some serious listening done to my versions of Don Quixote.