"An overwhelming piece of music with extreme emotions, phenomenally crafted, beautiful, wild, and very erotic," raved the British Guardian when the Budapest Festival Orchestra, with its founder and chief conductor Iván Fischer, released a recording of Richard Strauss's "Joseph's Legend" in 2018. Indeed, the story of the pious Joseph, who is first seduced and then coldly betrayed by the wife of the Egyptian court official Potiphar in the palace, leaves nothing to be desired musically – not least because Strauss deploys just about everything an orchestra has to offer: huge string and wind sections, several harps, piano, six timpani, castanets, and even an effervescent wind machine. A sound spectacle for which the Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie provides the ideal acoustics.

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Nov 11, 2025

Budapest Festival Orchestra / Alina Ibragimova / Ivan Fischer

Budapest Festival Orchestra