Richard Strauss’ blends motifs depicting humor and heroism to reflect Don Quixote’s quixotic adventures, brought vividly to life by Alisa Weilerstein. CSO’s own Christian Colberg joins as the steadfast sidekick, helping to tell this larger-than-life story. Enescu’s Symphony No. 3, an extraordinarily rare work not performed in America for at least a century, was written in the shadow of Dante’s Inferno. Scored for an orchestra of Mahlerian proportions in size, of Wagnerian power in scope and Bach-like tenderness in intimacy, this composition offers a true universe of human existence — destiny, transcendence and final peace. Our Music Director’s passion for sharing Enescu’s genius makes him the ultimate interpreter of this symphony.