Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto (1945) is one of his last orchestral works and one of his most beautiful: a late-flowering piece of Classical clarity and lyrical warmth. Strauss wrote relatively few purely orchestral works during his years as an opera composer; returning to the genre in old age, he produced music of serene simplicity and supreme craftsmanship. Alf Nilsson is the soloist here, partnered by the Stockholm Sinfonietta under Neeme Järvi. The disc pairs the concerto with the suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Der Bürger als Edelmann), Strauss's witty orchestral reworking of his incidental music to Molière's comedy about a social-climbing bourgeois. Strauss said of one of his late works: 'It is no opus, just workmanship and wrist exercise' – a typically modest description that understates the beauty of the music.