Don Quixote

About

In his final concert as chief conductor, Dennis Russell Davies once again lets the full spectrum of the MDR Symphony Orchestra shine: the colors and complexity of the grand Romantic sound that Richard Strauss—wryly and not without humor—unfolds in his tone poem Don Quixote, inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ epic. Viola and cello embody the roles of the eccentric knight and his squire Sancho Panza. As a counterbalance comes Haydn’s final symphony: continually seeking the new, Haydn engaged with the symphonic genre for decades and, in a virtually consummate achievement, opened the door to the centuries that followed.