Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

This concert presents the music of two composers firmly in the Austro-German tradition alongside that of a Czech nationalist who sought "respectability" by making his Seventh Symphony more Germanic. Franz von Suppé's Poet and Peasant Overture is one of the most popular curtain-openers in the repertory, a combination of sizzling energy and languorous sentiment that has invaded popular culture in cartoons, advertisements, and jazz riffs. Richard Strauss's lieder are not widely known (certainly not as celebrated as his tone poems and operas), partly because there are so many of them, more than 200 in all. The selections on this program are love songs that invite the listener into Strauss's unique world of sensuality and rapture. Antonín Dvořák's Seventh Symphony, regarded by many critics as his greatest, aspires to be a "tragic" Germanic work that transcends Bohemian nationalism. Though it does present a new seriousness and ambition, Dvořák's irrepressible Slavonic sensibility bursts forth repeatedly, especially in folkloric dance music and pastoral melodies.