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CD of the Week: Richard Strauss: "Ariadne auf Naxos"

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Naxos
Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in two orchestral suites from the German composer's theatrical repertoire.

From 1911 to 1917, Richard Strauss was hard at work adapting Molière's play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670) as a lighthearted and more modern performance with chamber orchestra and a small comedy troupe. To supplement the brief production, Strauss added, at the end, his short opera Ariadne auf Naxos. He later revised the two works to separate them after a lukewarm audience reaction, and the separate versions are what we commonly hear today. Now, JoAnn Falletta conducts the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the orchestral suites from these two poignant and humorous works.

This CD also has a Boston connection: D. Wilson Ochoa, who arranged the Ariadne suite on this CD, is the Principal Librarian at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

To hear Ariadne auf Naxos​ in its entirety, listen to Sunday Night at the Opera on February 26 at 9pm.

Watch a complete performance of Lully's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKuUqsR4WOY

For more information and to purchase this recording, visit ArkivMusic.