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Editorial Reviews

This all-Strauss disc is a showcase for some of the Chicago Symphony's marvelous first-chair wind players. Dale Clevenger is a living legend, having been principal horn player of the orchestra since 1966. He opens the program with a rousing rendition of Strauss' early, Schumanesque Concerto No. 1. Clevenger's tone is simply gorgeous -- like gleaming bronze -- and he breezes through the technical challenges with aplomb. Both the Duett-Concertino and the Oboe Concerto come from the end of the composer's life, and they have an ecstatic lyricism and Mozartean grace that seem worlds away from the youthful exuberance of the Horn Concerto. Larry Combs is another CSO veteran, the orchestra's principal clarinetist since 1978. He and bassoonist David McGill, a relative newcomer, give a languorous, luxuriant performance of the Duett-Concertino. Alex Klein's liquid tone shines in an unusually intimate interpretation of the lovely Oboe Concerto. The rest of the orchestra provides loving support for their colleagues, led by music director Daniel Barenboim. A series of low-key encores return us to the beginning of Strauss' career and fill out this generous 75-minute program. Dale Clevenger, joined by Barenboim at the piano, performs a mellow, melodious Andante originally intended as the slow movement of an unfinished sonata. Barenboim closes the disc sotto voce with two solo piano works from a collection of miniature mood pieces: "An einsamer Quelle" (At a Lonely Spring) and "Träumerei" (Dreaming). Andrew Farach-Colton, Barnes & Noble

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