Richard Strauss: Elektra

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Image courtesy of L' Auditori

The conductor of the National Orchestra of Spain, David Afkham, presents a program in which the individual faces the abyss.

Although he was a renowned opera composer—even more successful than Richard Strauss—Franz Schreker’s music fell into oblivion when it was banned by Nazi Germany; the evening opens with his Vorspiel zu einem Drama.

Seville-born pianist Juan Pérez Floristán, one of the winners of the Arthur Rubinstein International Competition, then performs Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto. The Hungarian composer, ever-fascinated by his country’s folklore, had to pen this work far from his homeland, exiled in the U.S., where he had fled from Nazi persecution. 

The concert closes with the symphonic suite from Strauss’ Elektra, a powerful piece that narrates the revenge of the protagonist in the midst of a struggle for the throne in the ancient Greek city of Mycenae.

Program

• Franz Schreker: Vorspiel zu einem Drama (1913) 22′
• Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, Sz. 119 (1945) 24′
• Richard Strauss: Elektra, Symphonic Suite (arr. M. Honeck & T. Ille) (1908) 35′

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