Daniel Harding conducts Strauss’ “Don Quixote”

They are an unlikely duo: the idealistic Don Quixote and his pragmatic servant Sancho Panza. Inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ famous novel of the knight, Richard Strauss captures the pair’s absurd adventures in his symphonic poem Don Quixote with sensitity and humour; his sound effects include windmill blades in battle, and a tramping herd of sheep.

To open the concert, Daniel Harding conducts Richard Wagner’s festive Tannhäuser overture and Hans Werner Henze’s orchestral work Barcarola, which portrays the transition from life to death with sombre sounds.