Don Quixote, Op. 35

Completed in 1897 and premiered on 8 March 1898 in Cologne under Franz Wüllner, Don Quixote is Strauss's most adventurous tone poem and perhaps the most successful marriage of symphonic form and literary narrative in the orchestral repertoire. Cast as an introduction, theme with ten variations, and finale, it follows Cervantes's knight with extraordinary pictorial fidelity — the bleating woodwind chords of the sheep battle, the whirring wind machine for the windmill episode, and the knight's dying soliloquy in the final pages are among the most vivid passages of orchestral characterisation ever written. The cello soloist, as Don Quixote, bears one of the most technically and expressively demanding solo concerto parts in the repertoire; the viola soloist as Sancho Panza adds droll commentary. The work is a supreme test of both the orchestra's ensemble playing and the soloists' ability to sustain large-scale narrative arc across forty-five continuous minutes.