Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op. 35

Program notes

About the Work

Don Quixote was composed in Munich in 1897 and premiered in Cologne on March 8, 1898. It is often paired with Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), which followed a year later. Where Heldenleben presents heroism straight, Don Quixote offers heroism tilted: the heroism of delusion, of magnificent folly, of a madman who believes himself a knight.

The literary source is Cervantes’s novel, published in 1605 and 1615. Don Quixote de la Mancha is a Spanish gentleman who has read so many chivalric romances that he loses his wits and sets out to right wrongs and defend the helpless, accompanied by his earthy squire Sancho Panza. The adventures that follow are tragicomic: the knight attacks windmills he believes to be giants, mistakes a herd of sheep for an enemy army, and is repeatedly beaten and humiliated, yet never loses his faith in his mission.

Strauss represents Don Quixote with the solo cello, whose themes are noble and rueful; Sancho Panza is depicted by the solo viola, bass clarinet, and tenor tuba, in earthier, more comic music. The work is structured as a theme and ten variations, each depicting an episode from the novel, framed by an introduction and finale.

Tonight, two principals of the Berliner Philharmoniker take the solo roles: First Principal Cello Ludwig Quandt as the deluded knight, and First Principal Viola Diyang Mei as his pragmatic squire.

What to listen for tonight:

• Introduction: Don Quixote’s mind clouds over in strange harmonies and muted colors. We hear his theme (noble, melancholy) and Sancho’s (earthy, bumbling).

• Variation I (The Windmills): The most famous episode. Quixote charges the windmills he believes to be giants. Listen for the sails turning, and for the knight’s tumble.

• Variation II (The Sheep): Quixote mistakes a flock of sheep for an enemy army. Dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass imitates the bleating, an early instance of this extended technique and a vivid depiction of the knight’s delusion.

• Variation III (Dialogue): A conversation between knight and squire, the cello and viola trading phrases almost like an opera without words.

• Variation VII (The Flight): Blindfolded and mounted on a wooden hobby horse, Quixote and Sancho believe they are flying through the air. An offstage wind machine creates the illusion.

• Variation X (The Defeat): A neighbor disguised as “The Knight of the White Moon” defeats Quixote in a duel, breaking the spell of his madness.

• Finale (The Death of Don Quixote): Restored to sanity, the knight returns home to die. The cello plays his theme one last time, then slides slowly downward, a last quiver and a final breath, and disappears into silence.

Tonight’s Artists

Daniel Harding, Conductor

Daniel Harding was born in Oxford in 1975 and has enjoyed one of the most remarkable conducting careers of his generation. His path to the podium was unconventional: at seventeen he assembled musicians to perform Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and sent a recording to Simon Rattle. So impressed was Rattle that he hired the teenager as his assistant at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for the 1993-94 season. Harding has said that he has never had formal conducting lessons.

His relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker stretches back nearly three decades; he first conducted the orchestra at twenty-one, and in 1996 he became the youngest conductor ever to appear at the BBC Proms. Harding was Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2025 and was appointed Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia beginning with the 2024–2025 season. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021.

Perhaps most remarkably, Harding leads a dual life as a commercial airline pilot: since 2022 he has flown Airbus aircraft on medium-haul routes for Air France for about one week a month.

Diyang Mei, Viola

Diyang Mei was born in Hunan, China, and began playing the violin at five, thanks to his grandfather’s love of music. At ten, on the suggestion of his teacher Shaowu Wang at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, he switched to the viola, drawn to the instrument’s “dark and mysterious sound.” As a boy he also watched a television documentary about Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and from that moment dreamed of one day joining this legendary orchestra.

That childhood dream became reality in October 2022, when Mei was appointed 1st Principal Viola of the Berliner Philharmoniker after three years as principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic. His path there included studies in Beijing, in Munich with Hariolf Schlichtig, and at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai, along with a spectacular competition career: First Prizes at the ARD International Music Competition (2018), the Berlin International Max Rostal Competition (2015), and the International Johannes Brahms Competition (2012).

Mei performs on an Antonio Mariani viola from 1646, on loan from a private collection. Tonight he takes on the role of Sancho Panza in Strauss’s Don Quixote.

Ludwig Quandt, Cello

Ludwig Quandt was born in Ulm and grew up in a musical household. When he was six, Schubert’s Trout Quintet captivated him, and he went on to choose the cello. He studied in Lübeck with Arthur Troester, first principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1935 to 1945, creating a direct link to the orchestra’s storied past.

Quandt joined the Berliner Philharmoniker in April 1991 and later became 1st Principal Cellist, the very position his teacher had once held. His awards include prizes at the ARD Competition, the Brahms Competition in Hamburg, and the “Premio Stradivari” competition in Cremona.

He performs on a 1675 Francesco Ruggieri cello from Cremona, on loan from Deutsche Bank since 1993. Away from music, Quandt pursues interests in astronomy and dragonflies, and enjoys walking, cycling, and kayaking, though most of all he likes to spend time with his family.