Richard Strauss: Oboe concerto, Serenade in E flat, Suite in B flat – review

Richard Strauss's lovely, escapist oboe concerto, begun in the last days of the war for American oboist John de Lancie, has a Mozartian lightness and grace, captured here by François Leleux in playing that is not overpressured but lyrical and rhapsodically detailed. Equally inspired by Mozart are the much earlier wind ensemble pieces from the beginning of Strauss's career, which Leleux plays with his Paris-Bastille ensemble: graceful, charming, always – as Strauss remained to the end – at one remove from the harsh realities of the world.