RICHARD STRAUSS | Orchestral Concert

When people hear the opening of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra op. 30 (“Thus Spake Zarathustra”), some people immediately think of Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey , others of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche – and it was indeed Nietzsche’s powerful, eponymous work of philosophical fiction that inspired Strauss to compose this work, one of his most fascinating tone poems. It reveals the young composer as a remarkable musical innovator whose orchestral imagination took him far beyond the bounds of the “cosy Bavarian” persona that he later cultivated. The score could almost have been tailor-made for the virtuosic skills of the Erl Festival Orchestra.

Our programme is complemented by The Midnight Hour (2015), the first-ever work to be performed here by the Australian composer Anna Clyne. It is precisely her luminous art of orchestration and her delight in the ecstatic possibilities of orchestral sound that makes Clyne’s work a surprisingly apt bridge to Strauss’s symphonic sound world.

Another highlight of this evening in the Passionsspielhaus will be Pretty Yende, who will be adding Strauss’s Four Last Songs to her repertoire and will make this an evening to appeal to all enthusiastic music-lovers.