Hallé - Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs

Christian Reif conductor | Natalya Romaniw soprano

Howell Lamia 15′
R. Strauss Four Last Songs 24′
R. Strauss Serenade 10′
Mozart Symphony No.41, ‘Jupiter’ 31′

A concert curated around beginnings and endings with Richard Strauss centre-stage, contrasting his teenage Serenade with his swansong, the Four Last Songs, composed aged 84. Couched in glowing autumnal hues by a vocal and orchestral master, they’ll be sung by Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw, last with the Hallé in Manchester in 2016 when she thrilled concert-goers in Beethoven’s Ninth. She’s joined by the young German conductor Christian Reif, a Hallé newcomer, whose career has developed apace in the States when Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. To start, Lamia is a Straussian symphonic poem, inspired by Keats, by the 20-year-old Dorothy Howell, premiered by Henry Wood at the 1919 Proms, and the concert concludes with Mozart’s final symphony, where the contrapuntal wizardry of its finale aptly justifies its regal nickname – ‘Jupiter’.