Strauss wrote with great irony, “since Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ is so unpopular with our conductors today and hence rarely performed, I am filling the void with a tone poem of substantial length on a similar theme.” He was raked over the coals by the critics for making himself the hero of Ein Heldenleben ("A Hero’s Life"), but Strauss took such criticism in stride and was particularly delighted that the critics recognized themselves in the piece's “Hero’s Adversaries” section. Despite what you may think of Strauss’s egotism, Ein Heldenleben is a grand and delightful musical portrait, virtuosic and tuneful. This concert also features the famously yearning Love-Death music from Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde, and a beautifully ode to the beauty of life and love by the French composer Ernest Chausson.
Conductor Antonio Pappano visited WCLV and spoke with Angela Mitchell.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Antonio Pappano, conductor
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, mezzo-soprano
Thursday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 29 at 11:00 a.m.
Saturday, April 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Program
WAGNER - Prelude and Love-Death from Tristan and Isolde
CHAUSSON - Poème de l’amour et de la mer [ Poems of Love and the Sea]
STRAUSS - Ein Heldenleben [ A Hero’s Life]