About the Concert

Marek Janowski is considered a Strauss connoisseur, and anyone who hears him speak about the master from Garmisch-Patenkirchen also knows that he holds his work in the highest regard. This can be experienced in this concert, in which he places the Burleske alongside two "tone poems" (as Strauss himself called his symphonic poems). "Death and Transfiguration" was written by Strauss when he was only 24 years old, at an age when one does not actually think seriously about dying. The work has no biographical background; he was concerned with the attempt to portray the last hour of a human life with musical means. On the other hand, he composed the opposite, so to speak, i.e. plump humor and joie de vivre, for his "Burleske". "Con umore" is written in the notes, no less than four timpani and a large orchestra are used, the piano is allowed to shine, and this effort is worthwhile. The joke gets through. And not infrequently elicits a smile from the pianist.