Encore!

Normally we hear them only after the concert. But even if no one is willing to admit the fact, they are what we wait for. Some people even “sit through” symphonies just to hear them, which they consider the real quintessence of a concert – the encores. They are a suitable means of producing the “plus-minus effect.” With them, a conductor can once again really heat up the mood in the audience, making a real experience out of a rather dull concert. In terms of musical phenomenology, therefore, one must admit that they are of a fundamental significance in crass disproportion to the attention granted them in the concert business. It is time to put an end to this injustice! The Dresden Philharmonic and its Music Director, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, already praised by the critics to the skies for their recording of Strauss’s “Alpine Symphony” (also issued by GENUIN), have set foot upon completely different but no less interesting terrain with this CD, presenting a kaleidoscope of works which are usually played “afterwards:” Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No.5, the Emperor Waltz of Johann Strauss, the Interlude from de Falla’s “La vida breve,” “La boda de Luis Alonso” by Giménez, along with Mazurkas, Polkas and Seguedillas by Dvorak, Weinberger and Bizet. All according to the motto: the most important thing always comes at the end!

"A kaleidoscope of popular classics. Thrilling and dreamy, playful and virtuoso. All this in the widely praised sound of the Dresden Philharmonic."
(CD tip on Deutschlandradio Kultur)