Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra in the Sydney Opera House

All week, Elizabeth Alker celebrates the vivid storytelling and sweeping orchestral melodies of the symphonic tone poem. Today, we are treated to a piece with one of the most instantly recognisable openings, Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra from a live performance in the Sydney Opera House, as well as Mussorgsky’s frenetic Night on Bald Mountain from Leipzig.

Also, we’ll hear exclusive recordings from the world’s largest festival of classical song, the Oxford International Song Festival, with music sung by BBC New Generation Artist Erika Baikoff.

But first, our featured artist this week is the Modigliani Quartet, and they open today’s show, playing Haydn’s ‘Lobkowitz’ Quartet.

Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in F major, Op 77 No 2, 'Lobkowitz'
Modigliani Quartet

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Night on Bald Mountain
MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig
Paolo Bortolameolli (conductor)

Oxford International Song Festival:
Ludwig van Beethoven
An die ferne Geliebte
Erika Baikoff (soprano)
Sholto Kynoch (piano)

Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Simone Young (cond)

Antonín Dvořák
The Noon Witch
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Andrés Orozco-Estrada (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers), just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".