Composer

This program revolves almost entirely around William Shakespeare. After all, the English poet, with his immortal and timeless plays, has inspired more composers and genres in music history than almost anyone else. The American James Gaffigan, current General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin, follows this trail in his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

EPSG:4326

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Lawrence Power / James Gaffigan

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

After only three performances, Mahler removed the Blumine movement from his first symphony. It had received bad reviews and other nasty comments. Perhaps it didn't fit in with the rest of the composition. But now we can enjoy this incredibly beautiful piece with the trumpet solo all by itself.

Mahler 4th

Louis de Geer konsert & kongress

Here is a rare opportunity to experience two of the DR Symphony Orchestra's own soloists as soloists: clarinetist Johnny Teyssier and violist Michael Grolid, who together with the orchestra play Bruch's beautiful and arch-romantic double concerto - full of Swedish melancholy with quotes from the folk melody Ack, Värmeland, du sköna.

Kochanovsky & Strauss

DR Koncerthuset

With soft melodies and technical challenges, this Violin Concerto by Max Bruch is beloved, and it is performed tonight by Nikolaj Znaider. We also hear Elgar’s infinitely beautiful Enigma Variations with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in all its splendour.

Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1

Göteborgs Symfoniker

Elektra's father: murdered. Her mother and her paramour Ägisth were his murderers. The disheveled Elektra is determined to avenge the parricide. She has the axe for the deed but not the strength. Then her brother Orest appears … Armor-plated emotions! – whipped up by a gigantic orchestra. An aristocratic cast of singers. An enthusiastically cheered staging by Herbert Wernicke. A shattering drama of the Soul.

Elektra

Max-Joseph-Platz

Puccini first showcased his operatic voice through the orchestra alone with his Capriccio Sinfonico. Marking the start of his signature musical style, it blends the lyrical and dramatic qualities that later came to define his iconic operas.

The Cunning Little Vixen

MediaCityUK

South African soprano Golda Schultz is blessed with “one of the most golden rich-toned voices of her generation” (Opera). Her thrilling PCMS debut recital with pianist Jonathan Ware in 2022 revealed a rare combination of musical wit and curatorial thought. “Schultz and Ware made each song a deeply involving short story. She gives listeners the feeling that each piece of music is being newly discovered as she delivers it, a sense of wonder being transmitted from artist to audience” (Star Tribune).

Golda Schultz, soprano Jonathan Ware, piano

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

He was the legendary seducer—and ultimately ended up in hell: Don Giovanni in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's version, Don Juan in the ancient Spanish legend, and in Nikolaus Lenau's work, which inspired Richard Strauss's tone poem . Both works offer a captivating auditory experience, as does Henze's overture to a theater. Carl Maria von Weber's favorite instrument was the clarinet, perhaps also because he was commissioned by the Bavarian King Maximilian I to write his Concerto No. 1. While widely performed internationally, it remains (for now?) a hidden gem in Vienna.

MUK.sinfonieorchester | Don Giovanni & Don Juan

Wiener Konzerthaus

Join us for an unforgettable afternoon of passion, power, and transformation through music, featuring the electrifying violinist Kristin Lee.

Transform

Capital High School Performing Arts Center

This is the music that shaped modern cinema. Steiner’s landmark 1933 score for King Kong earned him the moniker “The Father of Film Music.” Stéphane Denève conducts Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, the Nietzschean tone poem Stanley Kubrick used in the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Denève + Hadelich: The Hollywood Sound

New World Center

Nicholas Carter, one of the leading opera conductors of his generation, makes his Bridgewater Hall debut.

Four Last Songs

The Bridgewater Hall

BBC Philharmonic - Four Last Songs

Embark on an epic journey with Richard Strauss’s tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, featuring one of the best-known openings in all of classical music thanks to its use at the beginning of the film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” This iconic piece, based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s novel, charts the philosophical journey of the title character and progresses through longing, joy and passion, with songs of the grave, the dance and the night along the way. This program also highlights French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto, a masterwork of orchestration where the solo cello always shines through.

Saint-Saëns' First Cello Concerto and Strauss

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Get ready for an evening where cinematic drama and symphonic grandeur collide. The night opens with Bernard Herrmann’s suspenseful Psycho: A Short Suite, arranged by Palmer. Violinist Nancy Zhao then takes center stage for Korngold’s lush and romantic Violin Concerto. The evening concludes with Strauss’ awe-inspiring tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, famously immortalized in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Mind Warp

The Long Center for the Performing Arts

The wind quintet has the challenge, as well as the benefit, of bringing together five distinct instruments to explore multiple blends of timbres. Klughardt's work is a beautiful example of great writing for each of the five, and the addition of piano in Louise Farenc's Sextet provides expanded sonic dimensions and is a true tour de force for the pianist. The program is balanced with smaller combinations featuring double reeds, the regal sound of the horn, and upper winds. 

Century of Winds

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

The stage-talented star clarinetist David Orlowsky visits Sara Kulturhus with his self-written, hypnotic solo piece Shadow Dancer. A dramatic evening is promised, loaded with emotion and courageous equilibration. As the icing on the cake, the program ends with Beethoven's never-failing masterpiece, the Fifth Symphony, also known as the Symphony of Fate.

Strauss and Beethoven on tour

Sara cultural center

The opening performance is Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 , a rare gem, astonishing with its youthful vitality and intimate lyricism. Then soprano Golda Schultz illuminates André Previn's sensual Honey and Rue , a cycle of melodies fusing classical and jazz to poems by Toni Morrison. Carried by the orchestra, her radiant timbre captivates and illuminates this sensitive kaleidoscope of feminine emotions, from intimate murmurs to passionate flights. As a grand finale, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier suite unfolds its intoxicating waltzes and fiery duets. Under the impassioned direction of Roderick Cox, this short opera becomes a symphonic poem where the human soul throbs, each note making our hearts dance. Between symphonic power, vocal confidence, and orchestral voluptuousness, this program weaves a golden thread between the centuries—where music always beats.

Where the heart beats

Opéra Berlioz

With "Elektra," Richard Strauss created one of the most gripping and emotionally intense works in opera literature. The story, based on the ancient tragedy, revolves around Elektra's relentless desire for revenge for the murder of her father.

Palace of Culture

Gastkonzert in Dresden

Kulturpalast Dresden

Kevin John Edusei returns to conduct a program celebrating the flamboyance and wit of two great Hungarian composers, Liszt and Kodály, beginning with Liszt’s symphonic poem, Les Préludes. Liszt wrote this dramatic piece based on poems depicting the heavens, stormy winds and pastoral scenes. Guest soloist Haochen Zhang performs Liszt’s high-spirited First Piano Concerto, which was criticized by his contemporaries for pushing the bounds of taste, but was later embraced by composers like Béla Bartók. Kodály’s Suite from the opera Háry János draws on his deep knowledge of Hungarian folk melodies to depict the tall tales of an imaginative veteran. The orchestra also presents Richard Strauss’ tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, and breathes life into the roguish German folk hero for which it's named.

Liszt & Kodály

Benaroya Hall

The stage-talented star clarinetist David Orlowsky visits Norrlandsoperan with his self-written, hypnotic solo piece Shadow Dancer. A dramatic evening is promised, loaded with emotion and courageous equilibration. As the icing on the cake, the program ends with Beethoven's never-fading masterpiece, the Fifth Symphony, also known as the Symphony of Fate.

Strauss and Beethoven

Norrlandsoperan

A virtuosic horn concerto by the young Strauss, framed by a lighthearted Schubert symphony and Mendelssohn's overture about the beautiful mermaid who leaves her mermaid realm to live happily with her knight. What could be better – for the horn as well as for this "Quick & Classy" concert? Audiences can also look forward to the principal horn player of the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Kristian Katzenberger, and an early work by the Viennese Romantic composer. While modest in its means and brevity, and reminiscent of Mozart, its rich harmonies and ethereal melodies make it a true Schubert.

Horn in luck

Hessischer Rundfunk

Spring Showcase: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble – Jason H. Nam, Eric M. Smedley, and Donald McKinney, conductors

Musical Arts Center

American violinist Sophia Stoyanovich has earned acclaim for her “lustrous tone” and “superb musical instincts” Fanfare. Since her debut with the Seattle Symphony, she has performed internationally, including solo debuts at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall.

Sophia Stoyanovich violin & Derek Wang piano

Concert in Orlando

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

The National Opera Studio Young Artists present an extraordinary evening celebrating the Studio’s collaboration with two of its partner companies: English National Opera and Scottish Opera. In this special showcase performance, immerse yourself in captivating operatic scenes spanning the 19th and 20th centuries.

Act Three

Blackheath Halls

To mark the significant anniversary of the Reformation in Hesse, which the Protestant Church will celebrate in 2026, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt) will perform a celebratory concert in Homberg (Efze) under the direction of Austrian conductor Katharina Wincor. The program at St. Mary's Church will feature a virtuosic horn concerto by the young Richard Strauss, performed by hr-Sinfonieorchester's solo horn player Kristian Katzenberger, as well as two captivating orchestral overtures by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The orchestra will also present the Fifth Symphony by Franz Schubert as the main symphonic work of the concert.

500 Years of the Homberg Synod

Stadtkirche St. Marien

Impressive, athletic – and so vivid that individual scenes of our antics will be clearly recognizable: We are looking forward to performing a few lighthearted musical recreations under the direction of Robert Treviño. We will be playing a musical team game composed by Charles Ives, and our audience can look forward to seeing how this "Football Game," complete with woven-in fan chants and a referee's whistle to ensure fair play, unfolds. 

Visiting Erlangen

Heinrich-Lades-Halle

We welcome back soprano Carrie Hennessey for Strauss’s gorgeous Four Last Songs, paired with Tchaikovsky’s powerful Symphony No. 5.  These are two of Maestro Murrays’ all-time favorite works, and they will leave a lasting impression.

Masterworks III: Strauss & Tchaikovsky

Placer High School Theater

Impressive, athletic – and so vivid that individual scenes of our antics will be clearly recognizable: We are looking forward to performing a few lighthearted musical recreations under the direction of Robert Treviño. We will be playing a musical team game composed by Charles Ives, and our audience can look forward to seeing how this "Football Game," complete with woven-in fan chants and a referee's whistle to ensure fair play, unfolds. The composer himself described the piece as a "caricature in two two-minute halves" and added: "Funny to listen to – but difficult to play!" We will also present the equally witty pranks of Till Eulenspiegel, that profound rogue whom Richard Strauss captured with all manner of mischief – and with such delight, because he wanted to hear "the people in the concert hall really laugh.

Robert Treviño, Janos Wollenweber

Bamberger Symphoniker

Based on the timeless, imaginative novel, Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote conjures the knight’s story with otherworldly tones and artistic narrative. Philadelphia Orchestra’s cellist Yumi Kendall “plays” the main character of the heroic Don Quixote’s fantastical adventures. Johann Strauss, Jr. praises Spain’s treasured musical traditions in Spanish March. Manuel de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat features a comedy of errors with frenzied and euphoric tones.

Strauss' Don Quixote

Appell Center for the Performing Arts

A final dance, a sonic cosmos, a transition: Sibelius' Valse triste transports the listener to a melancholic mood of farewell, while his 7th Symphony, with its single-movement structure, conveys the impression of a powerful inner awakening. Mazzoli, with modern, experimental sounds, creates a fascinating sonic cosmos – for Orbiting Spheres – that makes the infinity of the universe tangible. Death and Transfiguration represents the dramatic transition from life to death – a powerful and simultaneously sublime exploration of the theme of transfiguration.

3rd Symphony Concert

Theater tent at Küchengarten

Laura Bowler is a composer of rare imagination and theatrical flair. Her new work for voice and orchestra is inspired by Booker and Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang’s The White Book – a poetic meditation on colour, grief and the human spirit.

London Symphony Orchestra/Barbara Hannigan

Barbican Centre

Concert in Washington D.C.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

WindFest | Chamber Music Series

University of Miami

In 2020, the La Crosse Symphony started filming all of their concerts. We have pulled pieces to create the LSO Film Collection which includes a pre-concert lecture from our very own Maestro Alexander Platt.

LSO Film Collection: Prokofiev and Strauss

Rivoli Theatre

Concert in New York

Carnegie Hall

March Spring Concert

The Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra is the oldest continuously operating orchestra in the state of Oregon. From its inception in 1906 as a collegiate orchestra composed of nine members, the symphony has grown into a full symphonic orchestra performing 3 major classical concerts, a holiday concert, and a children’s concert each season. Professional musicians from throughout the Willamette Valley are joined by talented community members, OSU faculty, and OSU students representing a wide span of majors across campus. Repertoire from recent seasons includes Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe,” and Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.

Corvallis-OSU Symphony Winter Concert

Oregon State University

Prepare to take off from the ground when  Interstellar organist Roger Sayer sits down at the Symphony Hall's unique, 42-stop concert organ and plays the music from the blockbuster film at the Music Hall.

Interstellar 10

Aarhus Music Hall

In a Viennese Salon

Scarborough Bluffs United Church

This program is centered on how our environment can shape musical expression and Jean Sibelius’s Karelia Overture, begins our program with music that evokes a deep connection to land and people.

MasterWorks V: alpine symphony

Zimmermann Symphony Center

The tone poem that launched Richard Strauss to international renown, Don Juan is a showcase for his singular style and painterly gift for imagery, as is the whimsical Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, which depicts the rise and fall of a roguish antihero. The Cleveland Orchestra and French conductor Alain Altinoglu are also joined by celebrated Cleveland native Alisa Weilerstein, who makes a triumphant homecoming with Unsuk Chin’s utterly dazzling Cello Concerto.

Strauss’s Don Juan

Severance Music Center

A unique Norwegian compositional voice meets Norway’s leading piano star as Leif Ove Andsnes premieres Ørjan Matre’s Piano Concerto. Thomas Søndergård conducts Matre’s orchestral work Lyric Pieces, inspired by Edvard Grieg’s piano miniatures, along with Richard Strauss’ virtuosic and self-revealing symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben.

Thomas Søndergård Leif Ove Andsnes

Oslo Concert Hall

‘I am the new Bacchus, pressing out glorious wine for the human spirit’: Ludwig van Beethoven never pulled his punches, but until you’ve heard his Seventh Symphony in full flight, you’ve never known just how intoxicating music can be. That’s just the climax to a whole concert that takes aim straight at the emotions. At the end of a long life, Richard Strauss poured all the colours of the sunset into his heart-rending Four Last Songs – they’re a favourite on Desert Island Discs, and when they’re sung by the glorious voice of soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, you’ll understand why. Conductor Kevin John Edusei launches the evening with a vision of beauty from Canadian composer Samy Moussa, inspired by the magnificent landscape of the Caucasus Mountains.

Strauss’ Four Last Songs

Cadogan Hall 

The concert opens and closes with two groundbreaking youth works by Richard Strauss, and between these there will be room for beautiful ballet music by Tchaikovsky and a world premiere of a brand new trumpet concerto by British Stephen McNeff with the orchestra's own Jonathan Clarke in the soloist role.

Strauss & Tchaikovsky

Aalborg Central Waterfront

“I am the new Bacchus, pressing out glorious wine for the human spirit”: Ludwig van Beethoven never pulled his punches, but until you’ve heard his Seventh Symphony in full flight, you’ve never known just how intoxicating music can be. That’s just the climax to a whole concert that takes aim straight at the emotions.

At the end of a long life, Richard Strauss poured all the colours of the sunset into his heart-rending Four Last Songs – they’re a favourite on Desert Island Discs, and when they’re sung by the glorious voice of soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, you’ll understand why.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Strauss’ Four Last Songs

Concert in Frankfurt

Alte Oper

"How beautiful Princess Salome is tonight!". Oscar Wilde's French drama, arranged as opera text by the composer himself, was a stroke of genius of the fin de siècle, a scandal on one hand and an absolute hit on the other, both an artistic and a financial success which allowed Richard Strauss to buy his villa in Garmisch. Salome demands the head of the prophet, John the Baptist, who has rejected her, from her lustful stepfather – and bound by an oath, he cannot deny her. And so the zealous admonisher dies, and with him the princess is undone – "Kill this woman!". Krzysztof Warlikowski is convinced that Salome recounts many of the contradictions of the period of origin, that in this piece, however, much is also dismissed of that which at the time was still the future: "It's not just what's in the work of art itself that is important, whether it be Oscar Wilde or Richard Strauss, but rather the whole context, which Christianity and the history of the 20th century add to this piece."

Salome

In a courtyard of the Mycenaean palace servant girls speak disparagingly about Elektra. Elektra has not got over the murder of her father, Agamemnon, and the idea of revenge dominates her thoughts. Only one of the maidservants shows sympathy for her and is punished as a result. Elektra is yearning for the moment when vengeance will be hers and fully believes that it will come about by the actions of her brother, Orest, who was brought up in a distant region. Her sister, Chrysothemis, finds Elektra’s existence hard to bear and attempts to protect her from their mother, who has evil intentions. Chrysothemis wants to leave that awful place along with her sister so that they can live in freedom. Their mother Clytemnestra, who has been plagued by nightmares since she killed her husband, asks her daughter Elektra for help and while their conversation lasts it seems as if the two women might be reconciled. But Elektra’s hatred flares up again when Clytemnestra lies to her daughter over the whereabouts of her son, Orest. Elektra replies ambiguously to Clytemnestra’s question about the remedy for her anguish and fear, telling her mother that once the proper animal has been sacrificed under the axe her bad dreams will cease. Two strangers arrive and report the death of Orest. Elektra expresses her desire to ally with Chrysothemis in committing the deed, but her sister cannot contemplate such a thing. Determined to avenge herself, Elektra resolves: “Fine, then, I’ll do it alone!” One of the strangers moves closer to Elektra; shaken at the sight of her physical and emotional state, he allows her to see who he is: Orest. He exits to do the deed and presently Clytemnestra’s screams can be heard as she dies. Whereupon Elektra lures Aegisthus into the palace and he is killed by Orest as well. Agamemnon has been avenged. Nonetheless, Elektra stays in the palace feeling no sense of relief; she dances herself to death.

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Delve into Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, a deeply moving piece that portrays life’s final moments and the promise of transcendence. Through evocative melodies and full-bodied orchestration, Strauss invites listeners on a profound journey from struggle to eternal peace.

Death & Transfiguration

Meridian Arts Centre

Strauss & Poulenc

Rutgers University–Camden

UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra 2026

UC Berkeley Department of Music

Phenomenal horn player Felix Klieser takes the spotlight in tonight’s concert. He’s the perfect soloist for Richard Strauss’ swashbuckler of a concerto, and even that is just the upbeat to what comes next, as Thomas Søndergård and the full RSNO embark on one of the greatest adventures in 19th-century music; Bruckner’s colossal Eighth Symphony. It’s been compared to a cathedral in sound and a mighty mountain range. Either way, you simply have to hear this breathtakingly beautiful music live. 

Felix Klieser Plays Strauss

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Guest performance in Mülheim an der Ruhr

Stadthalle

Phenomenal horn player Felix Klieser takes the spotlight in tonight’s concert. He’s the perfect soloist for Richard Strauss’ swashbuckler of a concerto, and even that is just the upbeat to what comes next, as Thomas Søndergård and the full RSNO embark on one of the greatest adventures in 19th-century music; Bruckner’s colossal Eighth Symphony. It’s been compared to a cathedral in sound and a mighty mountain range. Either way, you simply have to hear this breathtakingly beautiful music live.

Usher Hall

When the planned performance of his opera seria Ariadne auf Naxos in the palace of a Viennese nouveau riche is combined with the dance masquerade of an Italian comedy troupe, the young composer is initially in despair.

Ariadne auf Naxos

Vienna State Opera

It isn’t hard to guess the identity of the central character in A Hero’s Life, Richard Strauss’ extravagant showpiece filled with action, valor and romance — it’s undeniably the composer himself. Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä pairs the work with music from his native Finland: Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen, a symphonic portrait of the life and romantic escapades of the country’s folk hero.

Mäkelä Conducts Ein Heldenleben

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Guest performance in Bietigheim-Bissingen

Crown Center

Concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus

Delight in an evening of luminous wind and chamber music with Mozart’s Flute Quartet, Strauss’ Wind Serenade, and Mozart’s magnificent Gran Partita. Mozart’s Flute Quartet sparkles with elegance and charm, showcasing the flute’s lyrical beauty alongside a graceful string trio. Strauss’ youthful Wind Serenade enchants with warm harmonies and flowing melodies, a testament to his early genius. The grand finale, Mozart’s Gran Partita, is a masterpiece of breathtaking depth and brilliance, weaving together rich textures and soaring melodies in one of the most sublime works ever written for winds. Don’t miss this captivating program filled with warmth, sophistication, and musical brilliance!

Mozart & Strauss

Colonial Plaza

Die Frau ohne Schatten is the fourth opera created in collaboration between composer Richard Strauss and writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The work is full of ambiguous symbolism, yet simultaneously focuses on fundamental human experiences: love, loneliness, unfulfillment, and longing.

A woman without a shadow

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Celebrate love and all its complexity with music filled with passion, romance, and drama. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture is a heart-stirring depiction of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers and is one of the most beloved and recognizable love themes. Strauss’s electrifying Don Juan sweeps you into the daring adventures of the legendary seducer. Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, ironically written as an apology to a friend, is an intimate and dramatic dialogue between father-daughter soloists Linc & Genevieve Smelser.

Love…It’s Complicated

Coronado Theatre

Salomé is intrigued by John the Baptist, the prisoner that King Herod (her stepfather) keeps in the underground cistern. She slips away from a state banquet hosted by Herod and insists on seeing the prisoner. He's brought out and she is instantly infatuated with him, but he rejects her. When Herod begs her to dance the Dance of the Seven Veils, she agrees, and later demands the head of John the Baptist as her reward.  An exploration of desire, love and female power, amidst the corruption of the Roman Empire.

Lucie Stern Community Theatre

"Noble simplicity and quiet grandeur"? No way! With their breathtaking operatic shocker "Elektra," Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal completely turned the 18th-century idealized image of antiquity on its head in 1909. Horror instead of humanism, revenge instead of a feat of glory, bloodbath instead of a flowering of culture: this one-act opera leaves no one unmoved to this day. And in terms of the musical language, Strauss and his mammoth orchestra also went to extremes in every respect.

Strauss: Elektra / Alan Gilbert

Curated and conducted by David Hayes, this program juxtaposes Baroque and Pre-Classical music with works inspired by this period, offering a fresh perspective—like old wine in new bottles. Anchored by Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in D Major, the program contrasts these masterpieces with works from the early 20th c.—Respighi’s Gli Uccelli and Richard Strauss’ Dance Suite after Couperin—compositions that were inspired by Baroque keyboard music. Known for his inventive programming, David Hayes pairs unexpected works to invite audiences to experience the thrill of discovery and hear older music through a new lens.

Baroque Inspirations

At the peak of his prolificacy, Richard Strauss composed his Alpine symphony. This tone poem, which explores the individual stages of a hike, is based on memories from his childhood in Munich's nearby mountains. Using a huge orchestra, Strauss depicts both the forces of nature and the human experience of this nature. The progression from sunrise to sunset is also a metaphor for a human life. In his early work Verklärte Nacht, based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, Arnold Schönberg tells the story of a woman who confesses to her lover that she expects such a human life.

Strauss – Schön­berg

Meistersingerhalle

Among them, parallel trajectories echo each other with poignant force. Korngold and Schoenberg, two major figures in Viennese music, had to flee Nazism. The former found refuge in Hollywood where he revolutionized film music; the latter reconstructed his musical language in the United States. Their works bear the scars of this uprooting, between nostalgia and audacity. Pablo Casals and Roberto Gerhard, Spanish exiles, embody resistance through music. Casals, an opponent of Franco, transformed El cant dels ocells into a hymn of freedom. Gerhard, a disciple of Schoenberg, blended avant-garde and Catalan folklore in a unique style, shaped by his exile in England. Arvo Pärt, Olga Podgaiskaya, and Samir Odeh-Tamimi extend this reflection on wandering and creation. Pärt, forced to leave Soviet Estonia, found refuge in timeless music. Podgaiskaya and Odeh-Tamimi, heirs to these journeys, in turn question boundaries and shifting identities. An evening resonating with the echoes of a torn 20th century and the persistence of a beauty born of absence. A world concert where each note echoes a lost land, but also the hope of a new beginning.

Exiles #2

Opéra Comédie

Join Pacific Symphony for an unforgettable evening of musical storytelling and virtuosity led by Maestro Carl St.Clair. Acclaimed violinist Paul Huang takes center stage in Beethoven’s exquisite Violin Concerto, a masterpiece renowned for its lyrical beauty and technical brilliance.

St.Clair Conducts Beethoven & Don Quixote

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

With Tchaikovsky's galvanizing Concerto No.1, one of the most pampered in the repertoire, and Strauss's pictorial Alpine Symphony, this program takes us to the peaks!

Orchestre de Paris / Semyon Bychkov

Philharmonie de Paris

Strauss’s eulogy to the world he knew and loved is an outpouring of emotion, and one of his most intimate works. Metamorphosen is paired with other works that extract maximum power from small forces: Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza and the world premiere of Bahar Royaee’s viola concerto.

Metamorphosen

First Church of Christ Scientist

Our third program features two of my favorite composers, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss.

Tchaikovsky didn’t have an easy life. After his failed—actually, disastrous—marriage and subsequent suicide attempt by drowning in the Moscow River, Tchaikovsky’s patron, Nadezhda von Meck, gave the composer money for a holiday. She told him, “Go away, go away from Russia—go to Switzerland and recover your spirits.” And so, he did. On this trip, Tchaikovsky was accompanied by a friend, the violinist Josef Kotek. When they arrived in Switzerland, they had a lot of time to kill, so together, they read through tons of violin music.

Tchaikovsky & Strauss

Terrace Theater, Long Beach Performing Arts Center

A program of legendary figures—both real and imagined—features the Annapolis debut of two-time Grammy-winning soprano Angel Blue performing a selection of operatic works. Known for her radiant voice and commanding stage presence, Blue has graced the world’s leading opera houses. In this special performance, she shares her extraordinary artistry with ASO audiences, including a repertoire of extraordinary and timeless pieces, making this an experience you don’t want to miss!

Legends

Maryland Hall

An evening of exhilarating energy and lush, stunning melodies awaits as the orchestra brings iconic masterpieces to life. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto amazes with virtuosic fire and soul-stirring melodies, setting the stage for the glittering charm of Strauss’ Rosenkavalier waltzes — pure elegance with a playful twist. Then, Ravel’s La Valse sweeps you into a whirlwind of dazzling orchestration, where a waltz starts with grace and spirals into something wild, hypnotic, and outright thrilling.

Waltzing Through Winter

The Grand Opera House

Things are heating up in the Faninal household! The nouveau riche is eagerly awaiting the wedding of his daughter Sophie - it is to be a noble groom. However, it is not the intended candidate, the Baron Ochs, who will win Sophie's heart, but the bearer of the silver engagement rose: the young Count Octavian. Before his secret lover, the Feldmarschallin, releases Octavian for the union, Baron Ochs is publicly disgraced in a suburban pub ...

Composer

Richard Strauss

Events

Upcoming events

May 11, 2025 - May 10, 2026

6th Chamber Concert · Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Sep 20, 2025 - Jul 11, 2026

Wie du warst! Wie du bist! · Opernhaus Zürich

Feb 20 - May 9, 2026

UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra 2026 · UC Berkeley Department of Music

18 - 27 Mar, 2026

Elektra · Bayerische Staatsoper

19 - 21 Mar, 2026

Kochanovsky & Strauss · Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Past events

19 - 22 Mar, 2026

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Lawrence Power / James Gaffigan · Elbphilharmonie

19 - 21 Mar, 2026

Mahler 4th · Norrköpings Symfoniorkester

About

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