Strauss / Shostakovich / Mozart / Ravel
This series of seven symphonic poems is the first significant chapter in the creative biography of Richard Strauss. The illustrative Hilarious Mischiefs of Till Eulenspiegel is, along with the symphonic poem Don Juan, perhaps the most concentrated of this venerable collection. After 1936, the work of Dmitri Shostakovich began to concentrate on the tragedy of human fate under the Stalinist regime. The Second Piano Concerto, however, unfolds in a more joyous atmosphere, written by the composer after the birth of his son Maxim. The Piano Concerto No. 12 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the first concertante works written by the composer after his relocation to Vienna. It is surprising the certain 'modesty' of the means Mozart used to approach the work. The sonically fascinating La valse Maurice Ravel is an ode to the waltz, to movement, to the magical metamorphoses of sonority taking place in the spirit of the Viennese waltz.
