The incidental music for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1912) belongs among the minor productions of Richard Strauss. It’s a good-spirited and exquisite work, though, well worth exploring. The orchestration is as refined and colorful as any other Strauss orchestral score, full of chamber music-like episodes alternating with pompous tutti writing, humorously describing Mr. Jourdain, the ridiculous bourgeois who wants to become a “gentilhomme” in Molière’s play. The four Symphonic Interludes from the opera Intermezzo are cut from the same half-serious, half-ironic cloth, culminating in the intimate lyricism of Träumerei am Kamin (Dreaming by the Fireside). Under Michael Halász, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra delivers a very committed performance, with solid ensemble playing and delicate nuances. The names of the excellent soloists should have been mentioned on the booklet, notably the graceful solo violin in the Dance of the Tailors. The only (minor) reservation concerns the recording, too dry and veiled for this bright music.
