This recording features two sides of Richard Strauss’musical personality, with the amazing ‘Burleske’ in D minor as well as his Ein Heldenleben. While the former is a playful, miniature concerto for piano and orchestra, the latter shows us Strauss’ symphonic style: majestic, virtuosically orchestrated, and full of grand ideas.
In that respect, Ein Heldenleben has more in common with Burleske than one would expect. Strauss’ satirical self-identification with the hero of his symphonic poem is underlined by recurrent self-quotations from previous compositions. The central role of the solo violin makes it another solo concerto in disguise, albeit less overtly than Burleske.
These two remarkable pieces are performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and their chief conductor Marc Albrecht, with Denis Kozhukhin delivering the solo piano part in Burleske.
Here is Denis Kozhukhin, performing the Burleske:
