Search - Richard Strauss, Edo de Waart, Heinz Holliger :: Music for Wind Ensemble

Richard Strauss wrote his four wind-ensemble works in pairs, early and late in his life. The felicitous Serenade and Suite find the teenage composer already in possession of a fluent, assured technique and a Midas touch for effective orchestration. In the Sonatine and Symphony, the aged Strauss basks in his patented brand of late-19th-century chromaticism with wistful aplomb. Arguably Strauss's finest concert work, the Oboe Concerto's prodigious demands are no problem for Heinz Holliger, whose astonishing breath control and rhythmic ebullience set new standards here. Edo De Waart offers sturdy support, though without the robust sophistication that marks Rudolf Kempe's unforgettable Dresden version. A bargain not to be overlooked. --Jed Distler