Kontraste

Richard Strauss's Duet Concertino is a kind of Beauty and the Beast story. The enchanting clarinet dances with the clumsy bassoon. Strauss compared the instruments to a princess and a bear. With clarinettist Rossana Rossignoli and bassonist Benedikt Schobel, Strauss was able to win two outstanding soloists from the ranks of the Basel Symphony Orchestra. Samuel Barber's emotionally intense Adagio for Strings, often used as a soundtrack since Stanley Kubrick's war film Platoon, has attained cult status today. Edward Elgar's solemn, stately, nobly marching 1st Symphony mediates between the deeply sad Barber Adagio and Strauss's tongue-in-cheek lightness. A testament to restrained passion.