Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

[1911, arranged 1944]

After conquering the orchestral world with his tone poems, Richard Strauss went on to inherit Wagner’s mantle as the king of progressive opera, starting with Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909). For his next opera, he conceived an original story in collaboration with playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) was an instant hit, spreading from its premiere in Dresden to opera houses in Milan, Vienna, London, and New York within two years. It has since become a staple of the orchestral repertoire too, thanks to this suite assembled in 1944 by Artur Rodziński, then the music director of the New York Philharmonic.

The suite, in one interconnected movement, draws excerpts from various parts of the opera. The opening music, taken from the opera’s prelude, peaks with a braying figure from the French horns that hints at what has been transpiring in the bedroom where the opera begins. In another scene, Octavian (the young knight involved in that bedroom encounter) arrives dressed in silver and bearing a symbolic rose, as represented by a sparkling theme played by flutes, celesta, harp, and violins. This music reappears in the suite as a recurring leitmotif, representing otherworldly beauty and Octavian’s love.

The rude interruption and ensuing waltz, with its tendency to wander off-key, are hallmarks of another character, Ochs, the bumbling philanderer who eventually gets his comeuppance after a series of comic mishaps and deceits.

After the waltz, a romantic passage takes music from the opera’s final love duet, and then the suite concludes with another big waltz number.

Piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, celesta, strings