Composer Richard Strauss was a mediocre pianist. He knew how to write dazzling music that took the instruments of the orchestra to new heights, but when it came to the piano, he struggled.
The instrument doesn’t figure prominently in his creative output, but he did write a few works for piano, all of them early in his career.
One of these rare works is the fiendishly difficult “Burleske” for piano and orchestra. Technically challenging, but awkwardly written for the solo instrument, it has never found favor among pianists.
Strauss wrote Burleske for the celebrated conductor and pianist Hans von Bulow, who dismissed it as unplayable. And Strauss himself dismissed it, only to accept it late in his life as a work worthy to stand with his tone poems in quality and musical merit.
Listen now to one of the greatest pianists of our time, Marth Argerich as she performs this work for oyur enjoyment:
