This Straussian effusion, Szymanowski's first orchestral work, begins with a crash and an exuberant, soaring violin theme suspiciously similar to that of Don Juan. Horns and strings figure most prominently in the music's primary texture, but all the instruments of the large orchestra engage in dense yet rapturous polyphonic writing, often over throbbing, syncopated chords. As in Strauss' Don Juan, Szymanowski erects a sonata-allegro structure over which he drapes a series of transformations of his themes, including a substantial amount of slow, amorous material. Undeniably derivative, this overture (initially completed in 1905, at the end of Szymanowski's studies, but heavily revised in 1913) nevertheless establishes Szymanowski's mastery of orchestral color and, in the quieter passages, his appreciation of musical perfume. But what would become his characteristic use of Polish rhythms and melodic turns in a more dissonant, Bartókian style is in no evidence here.

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