Strauss: Don Quixote / Horn Concerto 1 / Don Juan
George Szell, although a friend and colleague of Strauss, was not an  uncritical admirer of his music. Then again, Szell was probably not an uncritical  admirer of anything. That's why he is arguably one of this century's two or three  greatest conductors.Don Quixoteis widely regarded as Strauss's finest  tone poem. For this series of "fantastic variations of a theme of knightly  character," the orchestra is typically large, with even a part for wind  machine. Much of the writing, however, is very intimate. The Don himself is  represented by a solo cello, Sancho by the viola and tenor tuba. This sort of  "expanded chamber orchestra" writing is exactly the sort of thing that  Szell and Cleveland did better than anyone. The results are, quite simply,  unbeatable.--David Hurwitz