Orchestra of Opera North: Reflections

Following her vibrant UK début at the Kirklees Concert Season in March 2018, Dalia Stasevska returns to conduct the Kirklees Concert Season finale, as well as making her Leeds Town Hall debut, opening the concert with Lutosławski’s intense Musique Funèbre for small string orchestra.

Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs are the composer’s gloriously serene and transcendent swansong, with reflections on life and death woven throughout the piece. The vocal lines, supported by solo horn, are a poignant reminiscence on his upbringing and are renowned as some of the most stunning song settings in the canon.

There are few finer culminations to a symphony than the ending of Bruckner’s 7th, and the great adagio is a song of farewell. Bruckner’s music was given little appreciation in his lifetime, but the Seventh Symphony was an exception; an unqualified success at its première in 1884, it remains one of his most popular works. Inspired by Richard Wagner, our Wagner tubas get an outing too as part of the phalanx of brass performing.

Talking Music at Huddersfield Town Hall begins at 6.40pm
A pre-show talk at Leeds Town Hall will begin at 6.45pm