Thanks for uploading this amazing footage of Lynn Harrell! There's too little video online of him playing. There's barely anything of him with orchestra.
Just saw Dudamel conduct L.A. Philharmonic w/ this work, a few weeks ago.....the last Strauss tone poem I've finally seen in person. Composed 1 year prior to Ein Heldenleiben, it seems like a precurser to it......the main theme (a hero in his own mind going up against competitors.) Also similar: the fiber of the Dulcinea theme.....very similar to the fiber of Strrauss' wife Paulina giving him advice in Ein Heldenleiben.
Terrible performance. Ive never heard the solo cellist play those solos in the big orchestral introduction. And of course, true to form LH plays everything like it's an oversized, trivial and clumsy joke.
Setting aside whatever judgment you're making here about the playing (which I find thoroughly captivating and convincing!), the fact that you've 'not heard anyone play the solos in the introduction' only means you don't know the piece very well and haven't been listening carefully. There is indeed solo writing in the introduction which is obviously (and always!) played by the soloist, not to mention the fact that the soloist joins the section or the first stand of cellos in other passages (including the introduction) throughout the piece.
