NARRATOR: The idea was ambitious... [ Car horns honking ] ...the best musicians in the United States, one momentous week in New York City, performing in this all-star orchestra exclusively for our cameras to explore the most exciting music ever written to produce a television series... MAN: [ Snaps fingers ] NARRATOR: ...of masterpieces from music director Gerard Schwarz and for an audience of just you.

♪♪♪ SCHWARZ: Welcome to "The All-Star Orchestra."

We're so happy you've joined us.

On today's program is the suite from "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss and the tone painting "Sagrada" by Adolphus Hailstork.

♪♪♪ Richard Strauss was primarily a composer of tone poems and of operas.

If you think about Germanic-Austrian music of the 19th century, there were those composers, like Brahms and Bruckner, who wrote symphonies -- they didn't write operas.

Beethoven wrote one opera.

Then came Wagner and Strauss.

Strauss began -- yes, he wrote a couple of symphonies as a youngster, but he really wrote tone poems.

They were works that tell stories.

Liszt was the first, supposedly, to write these tone poems.

Strauss wrote 11 of them.

He wrote them mostly in his youth, in his 20s.

Then, he began writing operas -- lots of operas, great operas, operas like "Salome"; "Rosenkavalier," that we're going to hear excerpts from; "Elektra"; "Schweigsame Frau"; "Daphne" -- I mean, just so many.

And, of course, he wrote some very difficult ones.

"Salome" and "Elektra" are difficult, in terms of their musical language -- and their story, for that matter.

And, in a way, he came to decide that he wanted to write something that was not so intense and not so dissonant, something that was reminiscent of Vienna and a life of what was going on in Vienna, so he wrote "Der Rosenkavalier."

He wrote it with Hofmannsthal, his librettist, who did many operas with him.

It is one of the greatest operas ever written.

The story in "Der Rosenkavalier" is quite simple or quite complicated.

It's about a woman, a worldly woman, named the Marschallin -- extraordinary woman -- who fell in love with a younger man, Octavian, and they had a relationship.

But she knew that it wasn't destined forever.

Octavian met Sophie -- his age -- and fell in love with Sophie and so the Marschallin had to, in a sense, give up her young love and she understood it and it became very poignant.

And she didn't do it with any anger.

She did it with the realization that she was getting a little bit older and more appropriate for the youngsters to have love together.

After I had conducted the opera quite a few times, I thought it would be an interesting idea to do an orchestral suite from the opera.

PHILLIPS: This suite, which is arranged by Gerry, is really awesome for us because we get to cover some of these beautiful, long vocal lines.

GROSSMAN: The passages that Gerry has put together are, you know, they're all the high points.

HUGHES: Now, the whole opera is fantastic.

It's probably about four and a half hours long or something.

[ Chuckles ] JULIAN: It's some of the best moments of the entire opera, but distilled into 35 minutes.

HARNEY: I'm excited to hear Robert Chen play some of those solos.

CHEN: A really important element in "Rosenkavalier" is to have a very strong sense of pulse of the music, but at the same time, to find the spaces in between the notes, where you can be as free as you can possibly be.

RALSKE: His writing for horn is legendary.

OLKA: Whenever you think about Strauss, the first thing you think about is his father being a preeminent horn player of the day.

RALSKE: Having a horn player like that in your house as a young kid... OLKA: He really wasn't terribly concerned with what your normal-level player would be comfortable with.

RALSKE: He wrote the most challenging things for horn.

It's about the music, ultimately, you know.

The icing on the cake is that, you know, we get to go out there and strut our stuff.

♪♪♪ PHILLIPS: The Act 3 is really fun because it's, all of a sudden, all of these wind interlocking notes, quick fingers, but it all has to be perfectly in rhythm.

There are so many wonderful lyrical moments -- of course, the "Presentation of the Rose."

MORTIMORE: The young lovers meet and so it's these beautiful like beautiful little chords that are just -- it's just very magical.

HUGHES: Strauss shows the power of true love at first sight and the way he shows it is he wrote this very simple and very beautiful, and very innocent, solo in the oboe part.

And it's also filled with a lot of awe and wonder.

At least, that's what's going through my mind when I'm going to play it.

I try to mix all of these emotions in there, if I can.

PHILLIPS: And, you know, when that happens, like I challenge anybody not to get goose bumps in that moment -- including us, you know, to play that.

YOUNG: It's just beautiful and, a lot of times, actually, we sing under our breath because it's just so fun.

It's just -- It's just beautiful.

HUGHES: Without doubt, one of the greatest operas of all time.

SCHWARZ: For me, it is one of the great thrills, to be able to conduct this great music.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ SCHWARZ: Adolphus Hailstork is one of America's great composers.

I was very excited to have, in recent time, premiered three of his pieces, especially this one, which I actually premiered this last year -- 2022.

HAILSTORK: If anybody has never seen La Sagrada Família, you got to go.

And it's one of those buildings that, I believe it's on the UNESCO site of historical, crucially important buildings.

Then, when you go inside, it's got the most spectacular rose windows -- like every window's like a rose window, with beautiful sunshine coming in.

Depending on which time of the day you're there and what angle you get, they're gorgeous.

So, I wanted to capture that, so, the piece starts off with this high, ethereal sound in the strings.

I tried to capture the essence of the light, the solemnity.

It starts off slowly, with the sound evolving.

Eventually, it grows, almost like a religious passage type of thing, as it evolves.

The one little thing I did in there that -- more down-to-earth, you might say, was that, since it's in Catalonia, part of Spain, I quoted a Catalonian folk song two times in the piece, to give it some kind of... ...down-to-earth relationship to the actual place it is.

SCHWARZ: It's exciting for us to do this work with the All-Stars and to bring it to all of you and, hopefully, everyone will remember that Adolphus Hailstork is one of our great living composers.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ SCHWARZ: Thank you so much for joining us.

On our next program, we will feature music by Johannes Brahms and Hector Berlioz.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪