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Schumann wrote the first true cello concerto, though he never heard it performed during his lifetime. Its enduring popularity lies in its emotional depth, as Victor Julien-Laferrière notes: “I hope Schumann’s concerto offers the audience a deeply romantic moment, evoking someone alone with their thoughts, in an intimate dialogue with nature.” Richard Strauss, a master of musical storytelling, reached new heights with Don Quixote. ‘Fantastic variations on a theme of knightly character,’ he subtitled this symphonic poem, based on Cervantes’ book about the knight-errant. And fantastic it is: a masterfully composed tale that sweeps listeners along—at times delicately, at others with irony and flamboyance—into the battle against injustice.
