BBC SSO 2016-17 Season Strauss’s Four Last Songs

“In the rapturous swell of the world’s breath to drown, to sink unconscious…supreme bliss!” Three composers travel to the outer limits of human emotion – and then surrender to sheer beauty. Wagner’s vast, rapturous operatic visions are famous as some of the most overwhelming experiences in all music, and there’s a good reason why Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs are so beloved - few pieces more poignantly distil both the sweetness and sadness of a life at sunset, and Erin Wall’s interpretation has been justly praised. But Rued Langgaard’s “heaven-storming” Sixth Symphony might need some introduction. Don’t worry: Thomas Dausgaard is the most committed possible champion of his fellow-countryman’s lush, spectacular music.

Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room
Thomas Dausgaard introduces the Sixth Symphony by Langgaard.

Coda
(approximately 10 minutes after the main concert)
Pianist Alexa Stier, a student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, plays Rued Langgaard’s ‘Blomstervignetter’, BVN 56.

The main concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.