About the Concert

With his highly virtuosic caprices, the "devil's violinist" Paganini inspired other composers time and again, including Rachmaninoff, who used the theme as the starting point for his own variations. Originally intended for violin and orchestra, Cameron Carpenter plays it for us on the concert hall organ, adding a number of musical colours to the solo part. Strauss' tone poems are also musically colourful. Don Juan is the epitome of the macho: testosterone-driven, egotistical and unscrupulous, and inspired Strauss to write a powerful symphonic poem. Till Eulenspiegel, on the other hand, roamed the countryside as a wise fool and held a mirror up to the rulers. The humorous music that Strauss composed along the lines of Till's owl-mirrors is still loved by the music world today. Even if the story does not have a happy ending.