Strauss' Don Quixote & The Last Knight
Sun, Oct 27
|Metropolitan Museum of Art
Time & Location
Oct 27, 2019, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA
About the event
Part of the series Sight & Sound, in which conductor and music historian Leon Botstein explores the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts. A discussion is accompanied by musical excerpts and on-screen artworks, then a full performance and audience Q&A.
Emperor Maximilian I of Austria, known since the 19th century as “the last knight,” was passionate about armor and the trappings and ideals of knighthood. There is no more influential tale of knighthood than Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which inspired Strauss’ “Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character.” His musical realization of Quixote’s chivalric journey is both thrilling and moving.
R. Strauss: Don Quixote
Leon Botstein, conductor
Lucas Button, cello
Leonardo Vásquez Chacón, viola