Here, the listener gets a tour through various kinds of
Richard Strauss
music in which a solo violin is involved, from the late solo
Daphne Etude
through some of the composer's major chamber works to the
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 8
. The tour guide is violinist
Renaud Capuçon
, one of
Strauss
' major champions and perhaps the biggest one from outside German-speaking lands. The program includes excerpts from a 2000 performance of
Ein Heldenleben
when
Capuçon
was a member of the
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
under conductor
Seiji Ozawa
. This live recording of the work has something of an engineering jolt, but the chamber works, including the rarely heard and externally completed original string septet version of
Metamorphosen
, have a mysterious inward quality. The rare violin concerto, a product of
' teenage years, will be the highlight for many;
senses the moments at which hints of the mature composer emerge, and his cool style plays off nicely against the big Romantic virtuosity toward which
was striving. The whole thing clocks in at more than three hours; after all, this is
who is under discussion here, but the program shows some lesser-known sides of
' musical character, from a player with total commitment to his music. ~ James Manheim