If you have not ever heard Beethoven's last String Quartet, Opus 131 in C-sharp minor, you owe it to yourself to stop and listen. It is one of "those" works....sublime, magnificent, plus other superlatives...
Imagine if Mozart were in tonight's audience for his Piano Concerto No. 23 and the Strauss "Till..." and Ives' 2nd Symphony. What would his opinion of the works be?
To this day what one derives from a reading of Cervantes "Don Quixote" varies by wide margins. Strauss wrote his 'take' on the original by creating a work for Large Orchestra and Soloists in a Theme and Variations form that 'riffs' on various scenes from the novel.
The Metropolitan Opera performs this intense and still-startling work.
Who is the "Hero" of "Ein Heldenleben" (A Hero's Life)? Is it the composer? Is it the archetype presented by Joseph Campbell in his books on mythology?
