To his father, one of many musical conservatives who pleaded for ‘less outward glitter and more content’, he wrote proudly of the ‘immense glow and sumptuousness’ of the sound.Īfter a wayward fanfare, the violins characterise Don Juan’s energetic genius with a high-leaping theme of irresistible ardour. Although Strauss deprives the audience of a chance to roar its delight, it was the sheer flamboyance of Don Juan that impressed at the Weimar premiere conducted by the composer on 11 November 1889. Strauss reflects this in the last of the Lenau quotations he placed at the head of the score – ‘the fuel is all consumed and the hearth is cold and dark’ – as well as in the surprising final bars of his tone-poem, one of the few works in the repertoire to start in a brilliant major key and end in the minor. Here the idealistic protagonist’s pursuit of the perfect moment ends in a duel Don Juan dies because victory has come to seem as meaningless as everything else in his existence.
Instead he turned to fragments of a German verse-drama by Nikolaus Lenau, first published in 1851, a year after the poet’s death. His model, however, was not Mozart’s version of the Spanish legend that culminates in the statue of the murdered Commendatore dragging the atheistical libertine down to hell. Strauss was to come to know Mozart’s Don Giovanni (focusing on the same central character) intimately during his conducting years at the Munich Court Opera and later cited it as an illustration of his favourite composer’s astonishing emotional range. So, while Strauss would never savour the thousandfold conquests of the fictional seducer, he had at least some experience with which to flavour the first of many passionate love scenes in his music. (The ‘land where the lemon trees bloom’ had already inspired the highly individual ‘symphonic fantasia’ Aus Italien, premiered earlier that year.) He had just fallen in love with one of his singing pupils, Pauline de Ahna, whom he later married. The 24-year-old composer jotted down initial ideas for Don Juan in 1888 in a church cloister in Italy. Southern light and the love of his life played vital roles in shaping Richard Strauss’s first unqualified orchestral masterpiece.
Enjoy the party, and see you next year at the world’s greatest classical music festival! Under Marin Alsop – returning for her third Last Night – the combined forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus are joined by star performers soprano Lise Davidsen and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason for a send-off to the 2023 season that reminds us of coronations old and new in pieces by William Walton and Roxanna Panufnik. Last week, Sir Simon Rattle conducted his final concert as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra.
The past eight weeks have seen adventures in Northern Soul and Portuguese fado tributes to Bollywood icon Lata Mangeshkar and soul legend Stevie Wonder and Poulenc’s French Revolutionary opera Dialogues of the Carmelites and the UK premiere of nonagenarian György Kurtág’s first opera, Endgame. Tonight at the Proms The Last Night of the Proms is a musical party like no other – this year especially so after the cancellation of 2022’s final three Proms following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Malcolm Sargent Rule, Britannia! 3’Įdward Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No. Henry Wood Fantasia on British Sea-Songs (with additional numbers arr. Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. Simon Parkin Deep River 5’įirst performance of this arrangement at the Proms 3’Įmmerich Kálmán The Gypsy Princess – ‘Heia, heia, in den Bergen ist mein Heimatland’ 3’
(Main Theme from ‘The Marvels’) world premiere c 3’ Giuseppe Verdi Macbeth – ‘Nel dì della vittoria … Vieni! t’affretta!’ 8’ Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana – Easter Hymn Intermezzo 11’ Richard Wagner Tannhäuser – ‘Dich, teure halle‘ 3’
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