CD REVIEW: Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie/Strauss

STRAUSS: Der Bürger als Edelmann, Op. 60. Duett-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon. Sextett from Capriccio.
Daniel Sepec, violin;Nicole Kern, clarinet; Higinio Arrué, bassoon; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Paavo Järvi, cond.
PENTATONE SACD PTC 5186 060 (5 channel) TT: 65:36

"Paavo Järvi and the German orchestra give us an assortment of chamberesque works of Richard Strauss, far removed from the huge orchestral textures of his major symphonic poems. The composer wrote 17 incidental pieces of music for Hofmannsthal's Le bourgeois gentilhomme which the author called "a burlesque comedy." The 1918 premiere was not well received so Strauss made an orchestral suite of 9 of the sections including several baroque style dances, brief quotes from his own Don Quixote and Wagner's Das Rheingold, and a final extended (10:33) "Dinner." Duet-Concertino, composed for the unlikely duo of clarinet and bassoon, was written in 1947, one of the last works of the composer. The disk is completed with the sextet that opens Strauss's Capriccio premiered in 1942, on the subject of the question: what is more important in opera—words or music? Järvi and the chamber orchestra play all of this music superbly, and producer Stephan Schellmann and his staff have provided state-of-the-art surround sound with performers in front, ambient sound from the rear."

R.E.B., Classical Review.com, February 2005