Composer

Four decades of musical excellence: 40 years ago, on September 14, 1986, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall was opened – with a program of romantic classics and contemporary music.

EPSG:4326

Anniversary concert - 40 years of the Cologne Philharmonic

Cologne Philharmonie

Four decades of musical excellence: 40 years ago, on 14 September 1986, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall opened its doors – with a programme featuring Romantic classics and contemporary music.

Anniversary concert Cologne Philharmonic Hall

In Verse of Light, the trumpet stands up for human creativity in the struggle between the analog and the digital. The work was written for MSO’s honorary artist Håkan Hardenberger by the orchestra’s Composer in Association, Karen Tanaka.

Season Opening – Brabbins & Prokofiev

Malmo Live Concert AB

Chief conductor Krzysztof Urbański dedicates the first symphony concert of the season to one of the great classics of the concert repertoire: Richard Strauss's tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra ). Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical work of the same name, which deals with the emergence of a superman and the eternal cycle of becoming and passing away, Strauss created a musical cosmos whose suggestive power has also found its way into films such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey .

Thus spoke zarathustra

Casino Bern

We will celebrate the occasion with a special program personally selected by the Maestro. Please join us at the concert hall to celebrate his birthday together.

Maestro's Choice Serenade

Oji Hall

Music Director Franz Welser-Möst brings the tradition of outdoor Viennese summer concerts to Northeast Ohio in an evening of drama and elegance. Mozart’s festive Symphony No. 34 and excerpts from Richard Strauss’s pastoral opera Daphne capture the beginning and end of the golden age of Viennese music. The rest of the program features sentimental stage music, boisterous polkas, and lively waltzes by Johann Strauss, Jr., and his younger brother, Josef.

Summer in Vienna

Blossom Music Center

Marking 25 years as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst leads a rousing program of music spanning a century and a half. The expansive opening of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger gives way to the propulsive soundscapes of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Intensity. The evening closes with Richard Strauss’s Symphonia domestica, an intimate portrait of the composer’s family life, from the mundane to the passionate to the playful.

Welser-Möst Conducts Strauss

Severance Music Center

Montreal Symphony Orchestravisits Aarhus for the very first time with a sound that has thrilled audiences in some of the world's largest concert halls. Under the leadership of the charismatic Venezuelan conductorRafael PayareAn evening awaits where musical intensity, precision and grandeur meet in the Symphony Hall.

Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Aarhus Music Hall

Strauss evokes his characters’ larger-than-life emotions through massive orchestral forces and daring harmonies. Wild, violent episodes such as the epic confrontation between Elektra and her mother contrast with moments of exquisite tenderness, as when Agamemnon’s son Orest returns to this most dysfunctional of family homes.

Strauss’s Elektra

Usher Hall

Elektra is determined to avenge the murder of her father Agamemnon by her mother Klytämnestra – but will Klytämnestra destroy her first?

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra appears in truly massive forces for this concert: Richard Strauss’s magnificently colorful An Alpine Symphony calls for 64 strings, quadruple woodwinds, eight horns onstage — and twelve more offstage — plus four trumpets and four trombones, two tubas, two harps, organ, celesta, and an enormous battery of percussion. 

Lucerne Festival Orchestra | Jakub Hrůša | Ray Chen

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

Stars of the Symphony is an evening like no other, showcasing the extraordinary talent of the FWSO musicians in virtuosic roles. This performance is a rare opportunity to witness members of the orchestra taking the spotlight and performing some of the most beautiful and challenging symphonic repertoire. This evening will feature, FWSO’s Principal Violin II Adriana Voirin DeCosta, Assistant Principal Trumpet Cody McClarty, Assistant Principal Clarinet & Eb Clarinet Ivan Petruzziello, and Assistant Principal Oboe & English Horn Tamer Edlebi. It’s a chance to cheer on the hometown team and experience the magic of live music at its finest!

Stars of the Symphony

Sundance Square

Classical music in short form — free of charge and refreshingly casual. Through music and conversation, we’ll introduce you to select artists and works in the early evening: young talents and major stars, beloved classics and adventurous new sounds.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra | Jakub Hrůša

The Orchestra of the FNO has enchanted audiences for more than 60 years. Since 2024, its concerts have also delighted listeners at Musiikkitalo.

Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera @ Musiikkitalo

Musiikkitalo Concert Hall

Rediscover Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, alongside new vocal works paying tribute to Canada’s Indigenous peoples and work by Gabriela Ortiz.

Voices of Canada

Dramatic energy and radiant lyricism shape this vibrant program. Haydn’s La Passione sets the stage with brooding intensity before giving way to the expressive virtuosity of festival favorite Daniel Hawkins in Strauss’s luxurious Horn Concerto No. 2. The program comes to a brilliant close with Poulenc’s dazzling Sinfonietta. Each work sparkles with wit, charm, and irresistible melody.

Haydn's Passion Symphony

Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts

Our Rising Stars programme invites outstanding up-and-coming performers to The Queen’s Hall stage. They perform alongside their internationally acclaimed mentors, soprano Louise Alder and pianist James Baillieu. The new recruits for 2026 curate and perform the repertoire for the first half of the concert.

Rising Stars of Voice with Louise Alder

The Queen's Hall

Program Ten • A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy

Fisher Center at Bard

No stranger to the spotlight, Hardenberger takes centre stage for Aerial, a work written with and for him by Austrian composer HK Gruber.

Orchestral Dances with Håkan Hardenberger

Sydney Opera House

Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite features a fantastic waltz, full of sweeping elegance, while Ravel’s La Valse has a moodier opening that gives way to a flood of opulence and a huge ending designed to bring the house down.

For Schools: Open Rehearsal with Fabien Gabel

Our annual visit to Mikkeli Music Festival in Finland is a highlight in the Philharmonia’s concert calendar.

Mikkeli Music Festival 2026

Sheku Kanneh-Mason catapulted to stardom after his performance at the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan. But it’s his superb musicianship that has led him to work with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors, including our own Chief Conductor Simone Young.

Simone Young & Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Rediscovered and published posthumously in 2007, Messiaen’s early Fantaisie sets the mood for Carolin Widmann’s uplifting recital with her long-term duo partner Alexander Lonquich. The German violinist, praised by BBC Music Magazine for her ‘beguiling subtlety of phrasing, tonal colour and dynamic shading’, continues with three different approaches to the sonata genre, each distinguished by their bold ideas and abundance of melodic invention.

Carolin Widmann violin; Alexander Lonquich piano

Wigmore Hall

Simone Young demonstrates her mastery of the music of Richard Strauss in the vast An Alpine Symphony. Experience the power of this evocative ascent, from majestic daybreak to triumphant summit, complete with a thunderous storm.

For Schools: Open Rehearsal with Simone Young

Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal reimagine the Helen myth, set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, as a tale of doubling: a phantom Helen returns to Troy, while the real, faithful Helen has been spirited away from harm. The vengeful husband, Menelaus, surrenders to love; the unfaithful Helen renews her devotion. The opera unfolds as a rich exploration of the complexities and contradictions of love, sexuality, and marriage.

The Egyptian Helen

A hypnotic blend of myth, melodrama, and psychological intrigue, Richard Strauss’s seldom heard The Egyptian Helen (Die ägyptische Helena) receives a lavish, rare U.S. staging at Bard SummerScape.

The Egyptian Helen at Bard SummerScape

The richest man in Vienna has commissioned an evening’s entertainment. But when a tragic opera and a comedy troupe are forced to share the same stage, all bets are off. Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera is part farce, part dream-like fantasy, set to one of his most luscious scores.

Ariadne auf Naxos

Glyndebourne

“Scenes from the City” captures the pulse of urban life, where ambition and restless energy collide in a vivid portrait of modern America. Bernstein’s On the Town bursts with Broadway swagger and jazzy syncopation, tracing the adventures of three sailors on a whirlwind leave in New York City. Gershwin’s An American in Paris rounds out the evening, blending brash city rhythms with lyrical nostalgia in a soundscape that feels cosmopolitan, exuberant, and unmistakably American.

Scenes from the City

Riverwalk Center

The high-flying aerialists of Troupe Vertigo join the Grant Park Orchestra led by Enrico Lopez-Yañez, performing eye-popping feats to classical works and film scores, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Disney’s Up and more.

Cirque: A Space Odyssey

Millennium Park

‘Sensational’ 2025 Sibelius Competition-winner Sueye Park makes her Proms debut, joining John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. All fire and ice, a love song for the composer’s own instrument, it’s the Romantic concerto par excellence: deeply personal and powerfully expressive. Sibelius’s Nordic lakes meet the choppy ocean waters of Betsy Jolas’s Tales of a Summer Sea, and later the dark forests and tectonic stirrings of Strauss’s Nietzsche-inspired tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra, its blazing orchestral sunrise made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also sprach Zarathustra

Royal Albert Hall

Sparks fly in this uproarious tussle for centre stage.

The richest man in Vienna has commissioned an evening’s entertainment. But when a tragic opera and a comedy troupe are forced to share the same stage, all bets are off. Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera is part farce, part dream-like fantasy, set to one of his most luscious scores.
Laurent Pelly returns to Glyndebourne to direct this new staging, with Robin Ticciati conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Adriadne Auf Naxos

Experience the rich lyricism of Rachmaninov and the vibrant spirit of African and American song in this captivating recital by soprano Nombulelo Yende – BBC Cardiff Singer of the World finalist – and pianist Mariusz Kłubczuk. A programme of emotional depth and cultural resonance awaits.

Nombulelo Yende soprano; Mariusz Kłubczuk piano

Elena Urioste and Tom Poster explore an idea first floated in The Jukebox Series, their compelling pandemic project to bring together works united by shared threads of beauty and authentic expression rather than their relationship to any -ism or arbitrary historical period. The mood for each half of their recital is set by impassioned works by Mark Simpson and Clarice Assad, both created for the duo during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Elena Urioste violin; Tom Poster piano

"The Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra shines with Mozart," wrote the WAZ newspaper after a "gripping evening of music" in which the Chinese-born New Zealander Tianyi Lu conducted his Requiem. And the young conductor also brought Mozart with her on her return to the orchestra's podium: this time the last of Mozart's five violin concertos. The Salzburg prodigy was not only one of the most gifted composers in music history, but also an outstanding pianist – and violinist. It's no wonder, then, that he put so much effort into the works for "his" instruments. With the Fifth Violin Concerto, he has created a particularly beautiful contribution: the melodies simply flow, the orchestral part is exceedingly rich, and the solo part is highly demanding.

Pioneer among classics

CityPalais

As a Music, Mix & Mingle evening, this concert offers a fresh take on a night out: arrive at 6:00 PM for tastings, $10 craft cocktails, and specialty mocktails by Breckenridge Distillery alongside a lively pre-concert mingle set to Bridgerton-style strings, then settle in for a dynamic, one-hour performance that is vibrant, social, and effortlessly fun.  

“American Icons” highlights the individuals—visionaries, trailblazers, and cultural forces—whose lives have left an indelible mark on our collective story. Five American Portraits is a recently premiered work by five contemporary composers that offers a multifaceted tribute, each composer crafting a distinct musical lens on an influential figure. Varied in voice and style, the suite moves through reflection, vitality, and bold expression, forming a mosaic of character studies that feel at once personal and expansive. Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks closes the evening with virtuosic storytelling, its mischievous antihero leaping through the orchestra in dazzling episodes—reminding us that icons, whether revered or rebellious, are often defined by their audacity. 

American Icons

2nd Festival Chamber Concert: Strauss' Merry Workshop

Munich Residence

Cornelius Meister conducts Strauss, Dvořák and Brahms

Teatro La Fenice

“The Final Frontier” propels our American Adventures season beyond earthly borders, charting a course through music inspired by the boundless pull of the stars. The journey ignites with Strauss’ iconic opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra,” instantly recognizable from the infamous opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, before soaring into John Williams’ cinematic worlds, from the wonder of E.T. and Star Wars to the triumphant theme from Superman. James Horner’s Apollo 13 selections and Holst’s relentless “Mars” conjure both the peril and majesty of space exploration. Broadway anthems like “The Impossible Dream” and “Bring Him Home” will be brought to life by vocalist Devin DeSantis, alongside nostalgic favorites from Star Trek, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons, rounding out an evening that blends spectacle, adventure, and heartfelt aspiration—reminding us that the spirit of exploration lives as much within us as it does among the stars.

Topilow Pops: The Final Frontier

Each year, the Festival international de Colmar transforms the city’s most distinguished heritage venues into vibrant stages for world-class soloists and leading ensembles. Since 2023, the festival has been under the artistic direction of Alain Altinoglu.

The La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra at the Colmar Festival

Église Saint-Matthieu de Colmar

'Where other children would have nursery rhymes, I’d go to bed to the sounds of Haydn, Mozart and Schubert,' recalls Sir Simon Keenlyside, whose father and grandfather were both professional violinists. Those priceless formative years continued when he became a boy chorister, then a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, and set rock-solid foundations for his subsequent career as a wonderfully perceptive concert singer, one of the most exciting operatic performers of modern times.

Sir Simon Keenlyside baritone; Malcolm Martineau piano

Česká filharmonie • Bad Kissingen

Regentenbau

The programme is a love letter to 20th-century song in all its forms. 

From the soaring romanticism of Alma Mahler and Richard Strauss to the bittersweet elegance of Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim, this concert brings together worlds that rarely meet. 

You’ll hear music from beloved films and musicals alongside lush orchestral arrangements of song cycles and solo pieces all carefully curated to tell a story that is moving, varied and richly expressive.

Fantasia Orchestra with Niamh O’Sullivan

Smith Square Hall

Elektra is a story of gruesome revenge. A daughter of the blood-soaked House of Atreus, Elektra burns with a blind passion for revenge and takes her own life after achieving her greatest wish. This opera condenses the Greek tragic drama from Sophocles into a one-act drama. Featuring what could be called one of the densest orchestrations in opera history as well as dramatically soaring soprano lines, the music conveys a dizzying array of powerful emotions--tension, hate, fear, joy and ecstasy--with superb elegance.

Elektra

New National Theatre

At the age of 22, Richard Strauss traveled to Rome and Naples. He subsequently captured his impressions in a composition: "From Italy." He called this work a "symphonic fantasy"—it is no longer a symphony (despite its four movements), but it is not yet a symphonic poem either. The third movement, "On the Beach of Sorrento," unfolds a fascinating, almost impressionistic soundscape, unusual for Strauss. The composer spoke of a "mood picture," an interweaving of natural sounds (wind, water, birdcalls) with his own feelings.

Italy trip

Bochumer Symphoniker

Robert Wiene's film based on Richard Strauss's successful opera "Der Rosenkavalier" thrives on a harmonious balance of moods: Alfred Roller's magnificent scenery and costumes combine with the silent, yet eloquent acting of the actors and the virtually endless symphonic breath of the score, composed especially for the film. The music, which freely oscillates between waltz and march idioms, as well as character and scene motifs, is heard here in a version for a 14-piece salon orchestra. Great cinema!

The Rosenkavalier

Blaibach Concert Hall

He is among the absolute pinnacle of the international conducting profession: Franz Welser-Möst, current head of the Cleveland Orchestra, returns to the podium for the final crowning glory of the 2025/2026 season. The former General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera brings with him lively works that celebrate the musical culture of his Austrian homeland – and simply spread good cheer!

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Zubin Mehta & Rudolf Buchbinder

At the end of 2022, Roderick Cox made his acclaimed debut with the Duisburg Philharmonic, and now the orchestra and conductor are continuing their successful collaboration. For his return to the Ruhr region, the American conductor has programmed Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben," a kind of musical self-portrait of the self-confident composer. In this symphonic poem, the hero falls in love, defies his critics, and, after a successful battle, carries out his work of peace before withdrawing from the world. Strauss's "Heldenleben" is sonically and visually powerful, but it has also brought him accusations of self-glorification. Before the late Romantic, another titan, Ludwig van Beethoven, appears on the program: his fifth and final piano concerto is in the "heroic" key of E-flat major and takes the solo concerto into equally sonicly powerful symphonic territory. With brutal chords, the piano and orchestra vie for the upper hand right from the start, while the solo instrument is allowed to sing its soulful sigh in the second movement with a beautiful melody. This is in the very best hands with Boris Giltburg , who was Artist in Residence in Duisburg during the 2017/2018 season: The world-class pianist has not only recorded all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas, but also his five piano concertos. A true Beethoven expert, then!

Hero's Life

This year’s Free Family & Kids Concert stomps into the spotlight with a dinosaur theme, kicking off with an hour of free, hands-on dinosaur crafts courtesy of Frosted Flamingo. Young concertgoers can create their own prehistoric masterpieces before the music begins, setting the stage for a morning of imagination and discovery. Conductor Jason Seber returns to lead this lively and engaging program, guiding audiences of all ages through an entertaining musical adventure designed especially for families. Filled with energy, storytelling, and plenty of fun, this free community concert invites everyone to explore a Jurassic-sized celebration of music.

Free Family and Kids Concert

With the famous funeral march from the Eroica , Beethoven creates an unforgettable atmosphere of solemnity and dignity. It is among the most powerful expressions of grief and loss in music history. In his Symphonic Metamorphoses, Richard Strauss transforms musical themes, drawing listeners into a profound musical journey that moves between somber darkness and radiant light. Maurice Duruflé's Requiem blends Gregorian chant with impressionistic soundscapes, creating a unique, meditative atmosphere. With its delicate, almost ethereal harmonies and the full power of the orchestra and choir, it transports the audience to a place of reflection and peace.

8th Symphony Concert

Dom St. Petrus

Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi

Salome, the teenage princess of Judea, becomes dangerously fixated on the imprisoned prophet John the Baptist. When he rejects her advances, her desire curdles into obsession. At her stepfather Herod’s birthday feast, Salome dances and, at her maniacal mother’s behest, demands a gruesome reward. Set to Richard Strauss’s lush score, Salome is a fever dream of lust, power, and prophecy, where every glance is loaded and no desire is without cost.

Salome

Cincinnati Music Hall

Sunday Matinee 05: Dalia Stasevska & Boris Giltburg

Great Festival House

Mahler Strauss Martinů Borodin

Gasteig HP8

The program for the gala concert in the Concert Hall has been carefully chosen. In Felix Mendelssohn’s overture The Hebrides, the orchestra and Kirill Petrenko enter a Nordic-colored world marked by mystery. Then follows Robert Schumann's highly romantic Piano Concerto with the Russian star pianist Polina Osetinskaya as soloist.

Léonie Sonnings Musikpris 2026

DR Koncerthuset

Season Finale: Strauss’ Metamorphosen with Gábor Takács-Nagy

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Franz Schubert was only 18 years old when he composed his Third Symphony – a fresh, sparkling work that exudes romantic warmth and sensitivity. It opens a programme offering varying perspectives on Austrian music. Richard Strauss cleverly adapted Vienna’s waltz tradition in his opera Der Rosenkavalier; Franz Welser-Möst conducts the orchestral suite. The programme also features Bernd Richard Deutsch, an important Austrian composer of our time. His work Intensity is sonorous and poignant.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts Schubert, Deutsch, and Strauss

Berliner Philharmoniker

In her ESO debut, Harmony Zhu performs Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a set of 24 variations that is bursting with energy and passion from the first note.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody

Winspear Centre

Beethoven's magnificent Septet was for a long time the composer's undisputed most popular work. Here, he reveals himself not as the titan he was stylized as in the 19th century, but as approachable, cheerful, and filled with an unbridled joy of making music. A feast of a completely different kind is the arrangement of Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel : a sparkling piece of musical humor.

4. Chamber Concert: Favorite Pieces

Kokerei Hansa

In a brutal world where revenge is enacted with the axe, Klytämnestra has murdered her husband Agamemnon. Their daughter Elektra is consumed by her grief and is fixated on vengeance against her mother. Justice must be served.

San Francisco Opera’s production, praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “extraordinary” and “stunning,” brings us to a modern-day museum and an exhibit on Elektra. A young woman grappling with her own life is pulled into the ancient narrative in this ingenious production by Keith Warner—a taut psychological thriller in which the past and the present become one.

Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts Richard Strauss’ expressionist masterpiece, replete with one of the largest orchestras in the repertoire. The intense emotions of this Greek tragedy are rendered on a vast scale by Strauss’ massive soundscape and a score that winds up the dramatic tension with an intensity that can only lead to one horrific outcome.

War Memorial Opera House

Anyone who loves music for organ and large brass ensemble will certainly not be disappointed by this programme. Sixteen musicians from the ranks of the Berliner Philharmoniker will be taking part when Richard Gowers takes to the organ. The young organist from London has become no stranger to Berlin since his Philharmonie debut almost two years ago. At that time, he performed with the Philharmonic brass players to great success, which soon gave rise to the wish to experience the 30-year-old once again in the Philharmonie. No sooner said than done.

Organ matinee with Richard Gowers

The Apollo Orchestra with principal Conductor David Chan welcomes Susanna Phillips, soprano, as our featured soloist in Strauss’s Four Last Songs.

New World

Montgomery College Catherine F. Scott Commons

Stories of tragic love unfold through the expressive power of the orchestra. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde conveys the tender weight of grief with exquisite harmonies, and Tchaikovsky recounts forbidden lovers from Dante’s Inferno who are eternally tossed in the wind. The highs and lows of a bittersweet romance are on display in scenes from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.

Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Strauss

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Join us for a season finale of bold contrasts and artistic innovation at Dvorák & Firebird, a celebration of sound and emotion that transcends time and culture. The program opens with Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, a profound depiction of life’s final journey. We welcome back Curtis Stewart, the 2025/2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence, presenting a juxtaposition of his work The Famous People with Dvorák ‘s Slavonic Dances. Experience a unique interplay as the orchestra performs three original movements from Slavonic Dances, each followed by Stewart’s imaginative recompositions, creating a dynamic dialogue between Dvorák’s timeless melodies and Stewart’s contemporary interpretations. Marvel at Stewart’s virtuosic artistry as he performs Sarasate’s dazzling violin showpiece Zigeunerweisen.

Dvorák & Firebird

The Bushnell

A season finale of bold contrasts and artistic innovation, The Rite of Spring On-Screen brings music, film, and dance together in a dynamic conclusion. The program opens with Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, a profound depiction of life’s final journey. We welcome back Curtis Stewart, the 2025\2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence to perform The Famous People, his reimagination of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances through African American musical traditions, creating a bold fusion of styles.

HSO Masterworks Series: The Rite of Spring On-Screen

Maxwell M. & Ruth R. Belding Theater

The Philharmonia’s 80th birthday celebrations reach their grand finale – a recreation of a 1947 concert originally conducted by Richard Strauss himself.  

Strauss was 83, and the Philharmonia just two years old, when he conducted the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in a concert of his own works. Santtu, an acclaimed interpreter of Strauss’s music, now steps into his formidable shoes to recreate that extraordinary occasion.  

Don Juan gets the concert off to a swashbuckling start. A gorgeous oboe solo paints a sensuous love scene, before heroic horns herald the libertine’s final duel.   

Santtu conducts a Strauss extravaganza  Royal Festival Hall

Southbank Centre

Debussy, Strauss, Beethoven

Imperial Baths

The grand finale of the Philharmonia's 80th birthday celebrations is a complete reconstruction of a celebrated concert from 1947, when the 83-year old Richard Strauss conducted the then recently formed orchestra in pieces that he particularly loved.

Philharmonia Orchestra

The Anvil

The Philharmonia’s 80th birthday celebrations reach their grand finale – a reconstruction of a 1947 concert conducted by Richard Strauss himself.  

Strauss was 83, and the Philharmonia just two years old, when he conducted the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in a concert of his own works. Santtu, an acclaimed interpreter of Strauss’s music, now steps into his formidable shoes to recreate that extraordinary occasion.  

Don Juan gets the concert off to a swashbuckling start. A gorgeous oboe solo paints a sensuous love scene, before heroic horns herald the libertine’s final duel.   

Basingstoke: Santtu and Benjamin Grosvenor in a Strauss extravaganza

Leicester: Santtu and Benjamin Grosvenor in a Strauss extravaganza

De Montfort Hall

Chrisjovan Masso, tuba

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Richard Strauss’ tone poems are arguably among some of the most richly orchestrated and strikingly adventurous pieces written for orchestra. Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) is no exception as it closely follows the composer’s own real-life conflicts, resolutions, and romances along the way through its bold battle music, soaring melodies, and passionate spirit.

Sierra and Strauss

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Callan Shanahan, soprano

“Here is enshrined the soul of…” This mysterious note, scribbled by Elgar opposite the title page of his Violin Concerto, sets the tone for an unforgettable end to the Season. Journey from the deeply introspective beauty of Elgar’s concerto to the playful charm of Vaughan Williams’s Wasps Overture and the sweeping grandeur of Strauss’s Viennese gem Der Rosenkavalier. This concert is a celebration of life’s full emotional spectrum - joy, sorrow, love and everything in between.

Ulster Orchestra: Soul Music

Waterfront Hall

Claire Metcalf, violin

“Here is enshrined the soul of…” This mysterious note, scribbled by Elgar opposite the title page of his Violin Concerto, sets the tone for an unforgettable end to the Season. Journey from the deeply introspective beauty of Elgar’s concerto to the playful charm of Vaughan Williams’s Wasps Overture and the sweeping grandeur of Strauss’s Viennese gem Der Rosenkavalier. This concert is a celebration of life’s full emotional spectrum – joy, sorrow, love and everything in between.

Soul Music

Belfast

Der Rosenkavalier weaves opulent, bittersweet waltzes with lush late-Romantic orchestration, evoking both nostalgic elegance and the ache of time passing. Strauss’s co-creator, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, wrote of a world of ceremony and lavish ritual, in which the characters are helplessly entangled.

This is the much-anticipated return of Bruno Ravella and Gary McCann’s stylish and opulent 2021 production, which had to be performed to a limited audience after lockdown. Making their Garsington debuts are conductor Finnegan Downie Dear, Matilda Sterby, Andreas Bauer Kanabas and Niamh O’Sullivan, whose Octavian at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées received great acclaim. We are also delighted to welcome back Soraya Mafi as Sophie and Robert Murray as Valzacchi.

Der Rosenkavalier

Wormsley

Yo-Yo Ma “is a musician of immense conscience, a wholeheartedly earnest presence who tends to bring out the best in whatever company he is in” (The New York Times). Sharing the stage with Gustavo Dudamel, Ma brings his sensitive playing to the world-premiere performances of an underwater field recordings-inspired concerto by Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón. The collaboration between Negrón and Ma sparked from an experiential creative workshop she facilitated with Ma and the Billion Oyster Project in New York City.

Gustavo Dudamel & Yo-Yo Ma

Brahms’ First Piano Concerto awes with its grand scale, intense passion and unabashedly dramatic piano writing — the ideal showcase for Martin Helmchen, “who brings both freshness and expressive depth to everything he plays” (Chicago Classical Review). Works by Ravel and Richard Strauss evoke the romance and intrigues of Vienna’s bygone golden age.

Composer

Richard Strauss

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 11 - Nov 15, 2026

Members of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra · Teatro alla Scala

May 1, 2026 - Mar 31, 2027

Salome · Wiener Staatsoper

May 9, 2026 - Feb 19, 2027

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

Aug 20, 2026 - Mar 9, 2027

Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera @ Musiikkitalo · Finnish National Opera and Ballet

Sep 17, 2026

Fractured Light: Joel Munday and Julian Trevelyan · London Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Sep 14, 2026

Anniversary concert - 40 years of the Cologne Philharmonic · WDR Sinfonieorchester

Sep 14, 2026

Anniversary concert Cologne Philharmonic Hall · Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

About

Richard Strauss hasn't added a bio

Composer

Richard Strauss

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 11 - Nov 15, 2026

Members of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra · Teatro alla Scala

May 1, 2026 - Mar 31, 2027

Salome · Wiener Staatsoper

May 9, 2026 - Feb 19, 2027

Der Rosen­kavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

Aug 20, 2026 - Mar 9, 2027

Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera @ Musiikkitalo · Finnish National Opera and Ballet

Sep 17, 2026

Fractured Light: Joel Munday and Julian Trevelyan · London Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Sep 14, 2026

Anniversary concert - 40 years of the Cologne Philharmonic · WDR Sinfonieorchester

Sep 14, 2026

Anniversary concert Cologne Philharmonic Hall · Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

About

Richard Strauss hasn't added a bio

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper