R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, TrV 190 & Macbeth, Op. 23, TrV 163 Andrés Orozco-Estrada

• Richard Strauss (1864-1949):
• 1 Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, TrV 190 45:17
• 2 Macbeth, Op. 23, TrV 163 21:06
• Total Runtime 01:06:23

Info for R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, TrV 190 & Macbeth, Op. 23, TrV 163

The celebrated young Colombian maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada continues his critically acclaimed series of recordings for PENTATONE with this release of the evocative tone poems Macbeth and Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, performed here with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

These gripping works, with their intricate scoring and compelling narratives, are orchestral tours de force, demonstrating Strausss gift for filling a huge orchestral canvas with vivid and exquisite details while maintaining a sense of drama. And they are stunningly brought to life in this recording with PENTATONEs state of the art multi-channel surround sound.

Strausss brooding tone poem Macbeth is a psychological portrait of the main protagonists in the play, the insecure and vacillating Macbeth and his wife, the ambitious but deranged Lady Macbeth. Strausss often highly charged score suggests the mounting horror and dread of the ill-fated couple and their domestic unease, the work ending on a sombre note following their deaths and the triumphal march of Macduff.

In Strausss striking and florid masterpiece Ein Heldenleben, theres little doubt who the real hero is but Strauss himself. While he was roundly mocked at the time for his audacity, theres also little doubt that this bold and dramatic tone poem is no mere cornucopia of orchestral effects; its a life-affirming work which ends not in a triumphal blaze, but in a mood of quiet resignation. This is Orozco-Estradas fourth recording for PENTATONE. His first recording, the Stravinsky ballets The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, was praised by Gramophone for his ability to unearth an astonishing amount of detail at relatively spacious tempi and for PENTATONEs awesomely precise recording. His two discs of Dvoák symphonies received similar acclaim: Vivid and colourful, overall well balanced (Pizzicato) an interpretation full of theatricality, with a sure sense of the monumental (Gramophone).

Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt
Andres Orozco-Estrada, conductor

Andrés Orozco-Estrada
was born in Medellín (Colombia) and trained in Vienna. In September 2014, he took up the positions of Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. From the 2015/16 season, he also became the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served as Principal Conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra, with whom he developed a highly successful musical partnership from 2009 to 2015.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts many leading orchestras worldwide, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Orchestre National de France, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. In the summer of 2014, he made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera conducting Don Giovanni, for which he was immediately re-invited to conduct La Traviata in 2017. Following a thrilling début the previous year, summer 2016 marked his return to the Salzburg Festival with Nicolai's opera Il Templario and – in place of Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Beethoven's Ninth with the Concentus Musicus Wien.

His engagements for the 2016/17 season feature débuts with the San Francisco Symphony in April and the Berlin Philharmonic in May. Orozco-Estrada and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony will give a series of concerts as orchestra-in-residence in Vienna and Salzburg, in addition to undertaking tours to Budapest, Warsaw, Monte Carlo, the Dresden Music Festival and across Spain. He will also accompany Colombia's outstanding youth orchestra, the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, on their first European tour, conducting eight concerts in Berlin and Stuttgart, at the Rheingau Music Festival, at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and at the styriarte in Graz. Furthermore, he will embark on his first European tour with the Houston Symphony.

Current releases on Pentatone are generating a great deal of attention: his recent recordings of Stravinsky's Firebird and the Rite of Spring with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony have been praised as “musical storytelling of the highest calibre” (Kölner Stadtanzeiger) and “captivating recordings” (Gramophone). Following his most recent release, the first CD in his Richard Strauss cycle with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Ein Heldenleben and Macbeth), Gramophone labelled Orozco-Estrada “a fine Straussian”. He has also recorded the Dvořák symphonies 6, 7, 8 and 9 with the Houston Symphony, dubbed a “lively Dvořák with warm colours” by Pizzicato. Further recordings are in preparation. Complete symphonic recordings of Brahms and Mendelssohn are also available.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin before receiving his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997, he moved to Vienna where he joined the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Vienna Music Academy. Orozco-Estrada currently lives in Vienna.

Booklet for R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, TrV 190 & Macbeth, Op. 23, TrV 163