Orozco-Estrada, Zilberstein / R. Strauss by Strauss, Aπό (2017/2017), αγωγός Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Musikverein Wien, Vienna, Austria

For their first concert of the 2017-18 season at the Musikverein, the Wiener Symphoniker, joined by conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, turn to the early works of Richard Strauss. With Don Juan, Strauss not only successfully established the genre of symphonic poem but also distanced himself musically from his predecessors. This development is already visible in the Burleske for piano and orchestra, here performed by the pianist Lilya Zilberstein. Before Don Juan came Macbeth, considered to be Strauss’s first symphonic poem. His works in the genre proved to be vital forerunners for his later operas, some material from which Strauss, in turn, reworked for concert performance by a symphony orchestra. One example here is the suite from the opera Der Rosenkavalier, written in 1945, some 34 years after the opera was premiered.