Word: capriccios
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Richard Strauss had finished his Capriccio in 1942. In his 70s, the once-lurid old composer had turned headily intellectual. The basis of his last operatic plot was an argument that had long fascinated him: Which should come first, words or music? With Friend Clemens Krauss, conductor of the Munich Opera, writing the libretto, Strauss had set about transferring the argument to the stage...
What the audience saw last week was a far cry from either Salome or Elektra. As one watching expert, Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler, described it, Capriccio is "a musician's opera, composed for the musical gourmet. It has the quality of an old, old sweet wine and contains everything that Strauss knew about music and opera...
Although Stravinsky wrote his Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra as a vehicle for solo appearances, the role of the piano is secondary. Much of its part is percussive, in keeping with a general trend of contemporary composers, but not with the real idiom of the instrument. Soulima Stravinsky appeared to handle the part in real razzle-dazzle fashion, although his playing was almost inaudible from my seat...
...Capriccio for Soulima. This week, in Colorado's magnificent outdoor Red Rocks Theater, which huddles between two giant crags, Stravinsky will conduct the Denver Symphony Orchestra in his own melodious Capriccio for piano and orchestra. To a family man like Stravinsky, this will be a special occasion. While he crouches and flaps on the podium like some grotesque little firebird about to take wing, his pianist son, Soulima, will be the soloist...
A.M.G. officials, overruling the sign-nailing G.I.s to whom Richard Strauss was just "another kraut," took down the sign. The composer stayed at home unmolested, continued to work on his new one-act opera called Capriccio...