BBC NOW 2026-27 Season Strauss & Wagner

Strauss & Wagner: two towering figures at the height of their expressive powers. Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, composed in 1948, a year before his death, stand as one of the most luminous farewells in all music. Setting deeply contemplative texts, Strauss reflects on love, transience and release, drawing the listener into what he called “the magic circle of the night.”

After the interval, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: An Orchestral Passion reveals the composer at his most revolutionary. This sumptuous orchestral synthesis has long been cherished as a concert work in its own right, its lush romantic surface concealing a daring harmonic language that transformed music history from its opening bars. Conducted by Anthony Hermus, the programme offers an immersive journey through two composers redefining the emotional and musical possibilities of their art.