Renaud Capuçon and Soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe perform Strauss and Mozart

French violin virtuoso Renaud Capuçon joins a group of supremely talented soloists from the renowned Chamber Orchestra of Europe in an enchanting concert recorded at the stunning Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris! They begin with the beautiful String Sextet that opens Richard Strauss's final opera Capriccio, warm and wistful, before taking on Mozart's Divertimento No. 17 in D Major. One of the most thoroughly engaging exemples of the "after-dinner" genre, it moves smoothly through clever modulations and lovely melodies, between stately major-key declamations and weighty minor-key laments. In the early twentieth century, its third movement (the first Menuet) was among Mozart's best-known works, and its charms are on full display with Capuçon in the lead violin role.

The excellent ensemble ends with an arrangement of Strauss's Metamorphosen, originally composed for 23 string players. Written in the closing months of World War II, this richly evocative and atmospheric work is often thought to express Strauss's mourning for the destruction of war, quoting the famous Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony as one of the five themes expanded and elaborated throughout.