Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite | European Union Youth Orchestra & Gustavo Gimeno

Opera in a nutshell: The orchestral suite based on Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss is played here by the European Union Youth Orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Gimeno. The concert at the Berlin Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt took place as part of the Young Euro Classic 2022 festival.

(00:00) The conductor comes on stage
(00:15) I. Vorspiel (Prelude, Act 1)
(03:09) II. Präsentation der silbernen Rose (Presentation of the Silver Rose, Act 2)
(09:21) III. Walzer von Baron Ochs (Baron Ochs's Waltz, Act 2)
(14:36) IV. Ist ein Traum (It's a Dream, Act 3)
(20:28) V. Schneller Walzer (Quick Waltz, Act 3)

Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) called his stage work "Der Rosenkavalier" (The Knight of the Rose), Op. 59, premiered in 1911, a musical comedy. The libretto is by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874 – 1929) and is set around the year 1740, during the first reign of Empress Maria Theresa. The plot of the comic opera is characterized by the turbulences of love, betrayal, intrigue and mistaken identity. The main protagonists are the Field Marshal, Baron Ochs and Octavian. "Der Rosenkavalier" represents an homage to the City of Vienna and the "Viennese Waltzes" that emerged in the mid-19th century. It was a huge audience hit from the moment it was first performed.

Various arrangements of the Rosenkavalier music soon appeared, although Richard Strauss never recognized any of them – apart from the orchestral suite probably composed by the conductor Artur Rodziński (1892 – 1958) and premiered in October 1944. A year later, Richard Strauss even allowed the publication of this suite based on "Der Rosenkavalier", although he probably wasn’t involved in the arrangement himself. Der Rosenkavalier Suite is a kind of opera guide in sound, in which the central events of the stage work are recapped purely instrumentally in concentrated form. And just like the original piece, the orchestral suite is flavored by the Viennese waltz.

The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is considered the musical representative of the European Union. Founded over 40 years ago by Claudio Abbado, among others, the EUYO is made up of the best musicians from all EU countries, ranging in age from 14 to 24. The orchestra's concerts are crowd pullers, not least because the young musicians play with the world's most famous conductors - here with Gustavo Gimeno.

The Young Euro Classic Festival is the world's most important platform of young international orchestras for the European classical music tradition and its development. Every summer, for two-and-a-half weeks, orchestras from all over the world perform in Berlin's Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt.

© EuroArts Music International

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