Classical Hour: Simone Young Conducts Strauss' Tod und Verklärung

In his final hours, Richard Strauss is said to have remarked that dying felt exactly as he had composed it in Tod und Verklärung 60 years earlier. In this concert, Simone Young conducts this magnificent tone poem.

"Dying is just as I composed it in Tod und Verklärung," Richard Strauss (1864–1949) is said to have remarked in his final hours in 1949. The work was composed in 1888/89. The fact that he remembered it 60 years later shows how much it meant to him.

Tod und Verklärung depicts the death of an artist. Through the music, we are taken through the final part of an old man's life, the struggle between life and death as he sees his life pass before him, and finally a moving and reconciliatory ending. The tone poem is divided into four sections and showcases Strauss's exceptional ability to create orchestral colours.