Richard Strauss Triple Bill

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Kazuki Yamada give a concert dedicated to the music of Richard Strauss, including a pair of tone poems encompassing life, death and what it means to be human. Plus Jonathan Kelly, current principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, rejoins his former orchestra as the soloist in the Oboe Concerto.

Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration) was written when Strauss was in his mid-20s and deeply enthralled with the musical world of Richard Wagner. It depicts the last moments of a man's life, both the external reality of his bed-ridden existence and the battle raging between life and death within his soul. But as the moment of death comes, Strauss's music opens out ecstatic new horizons; the soul is transfigured and transported heavenwards.

From the other end of Strauss's long composing career and inhabiting a far more intimate soundworld, the Oboe Concerto was one of his final creations. As with so much of his late music, it was inspired by Strauss's greatest musical hero: Mozart. The idea for the concerto came from one John de Lancie, an American military intelligence officer and oboist who had befriended the elderly composer when posted to the area of Switzerland where Strauss was living at the end of World War II.

After the interval, the iconic opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) will blast out in Birmingham's Symphony Hall. But it doesn't stop there; the expansive Nietzsche-inspired symphonic tone poem is far more than its celebrated beginning. Joys and passions, dances and dirges - the music responds to and encapsulates some of life's highs and lows before melting into the dark of a peaceful night.

Presented by Al Ryan.

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Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklarung, Op. 24
Richard Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D major

INTERVAL

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Kelly (oboe)
Kazuki Yamada (conductor)

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To listen on most smart speakers just say 'ask BBC Sounds to play Radio 3 in Concert'.