R. Strauss: Violin Concerto, Op. 18 & Aus Italien, Op. 16

Album review

Here the violinist Robert Kowalski and the conductor Markus Poschner at the head of the Swiss Italian Radio Orchestra present a Richard Strauss piece from the composer’s early adult years. The Concerto for Violin in D minor was composed at the age of eighteen by an extremely gifted young man still steeped in the models of Max Bruch and Johannes Brahms, whose Concerto for Violin in D major had been created three years earlier.

It would be futile to look for the future Richard Strauss in this early work; we can only admire the musical baggage and precocity of a young composy who skilfully masters writing and style with fantastic composure and a winning spirit. At the same time he composed his only symphony, a Piano Quartet and an immense Violin and Piano Sonata.

Three years later, Strauss composed his first symphonic poem, Aus Italien. Composed after a journey to the Italian peninsula, it is in fact a symphony in disguise. Its four-movement structure is quite classical, and the subtitles are evocative of places that caught the composer's imagination: the Roman countryside, the ruins of Rome, the Sorrento beach and the liveliness of Neapolitan life. This first symphonic poem, of great scope and sometimes enigmatic tone, made its author proud, who never vilified it afterwards. © CPO