If there is a piece of music which brings the title "Romance" to life, then this is it. Strauss was just 19 and in the middle of a highly emotional period in his life when he wrote this work. Not only had he fallen in love with Dora Weis, whom he later married, but he was deeply touched by of the music of Wagner, who had recently died.  This admiration can be clearly heard in the harmonic structure of the work along with Strauss’ development of an “endless melody”.

CD: Simeon Bychkov, Conductor – Mischa Maisky, Violoncello – Orchestre de Paris, Deutsche Grammophon DG 435 781-2
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