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Don Quixote “Fantastic Variations On A Theme Of Knightly Character, Op35”

Don Quixote
“Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, op35”
Can A Tone Poem or also known as Symphonic Poem conjure the images of a tangible thought or idea? Richard Strauss who preferred the phrase tone poem rather than symphonic poem, tried to do just that with his programmatic piece entitled Don Quixote (Ewen, 1967). A tone poem is an orchestral piece which is based on something tangible as in a painting or a piece of literature, the piece tries to conjure the images from its subject through the music. One can hear for example, the flight of birds played by a solo flute. These images help you travel thru the piece. The tone poem, is in one movement it could stand alone or be part of a larger piece as in the 1895 piece by Sibelius’s, Lemminkäinen Suite there is a tone poem entitled The Swan of Tuonela (Wikepedia). Therefore tone poems could stand alone or be combined to form a suite, more so as in the romantic than the baroque form of the suite.
The symphonic poem as we know it today is largely due to Franz Liszt the inventor of the genre, all that followed would use his works as examples on the formation of the tone poem. The tone poem is used to this day as heard in the “Sorcerers’ Apprentice” or L'apprenti sorcier, probably the most famous of tone poem written by Paul Dukas and in 1940 included in the Disney Feature animation Fantasia where we are able to see how the imagery meets the Orchestra.
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Richard Strauss attempts to conjure the imagery from a literary work “Don Quixote” by Cervantes .This particular production is conducted by Herbert Von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic. It should be noted that this piece returns to the same company and the same city that Richard Strauss himself was the conductor for 12 years where at that point his compositional output neared zero. (College, 1999)
As this piece begins one can close their eyes to try to capture the imagery that the composer tried to convey. Does the imagery appear?...