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Three very different works from the long life of Richard Strauss are performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

Pappano leads a masterful program of protean compositions by Hannah Kendall, Strauss and Liszt, joined by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. 

Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax find inspiration working with their young colleagues on an idyllic Sunday in the Berkshires. 

A world premiere from Hannah Kendall, a rarely performed work by Liszt and one of Strauss' glittering tone poems make up Pappano's first concert as the LSO's Chief Conductor Designate.

Edward Gardner conducts the LPO in a shrewdly conceived programme of Ligeti and Strauss.

On the strength of this stirring evening of Strauss, the 35-year-old Finn is set to become a welcome Southbank resident. 

Kevin Puts’ expanded work on Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Steiglitz provides another triumph for Renée Fleming and the NSO, while two Strauss works demonstrate both its artistic re-emergence and work left to do.

Giltburg's playing was like liquid silver pouring out of the Steinway.

Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra fills the Royal Albert Hall, while Schumann’s piano concerto is followed by MacMillan’s masterpiece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. 

Reaching the climax of his exploration of Shostakovich’s “war symphonies”, Rafael Payare and the Ulster Orchestra pit Strauss’ epic tone-poem against the colossal “Leningrad” Symphony.

Renée Fleming assumes the role of the Countess is Capriccio as part of an all-Strauss program at Symphony Hall. 

Roth's exploration of the roots of musical modernism takes the LSO from Debussy to Strauss via Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Edward Gardner opens the Hallé's Thursday series with dramatic Strauss and Janáček.

Dvořák is diminished in the wake of Bartók’s experimental zeal and Strauss’ fearless convolutions.

This season, the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC) is turning its eyes towards Bach, whilst at the same time programming the usual great symphonic repertoire, as well as contemporary composers. Here, Kazushi Ono gathered a Bach concerto (transcribed for violin), a rarely-performed work by Schumann and Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra.

The musical riches provided notwithstanding, much was desired in the dazzling orchestral showpieces of the evening.

Conductor Riccardo Chailly launched this year's Lucerne Festival with a riveting programme of three late 19th century works by the great orchestral explorer, Richard Strauss.

The Staatsorchester Darmstadt under Will Humburg performed three mightly works for large orchestra to bring its season to a close: Kurtág's Stele, Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

Iréne Theorin gives a powerful interpretation of Salome and Elektra's mad scenes in a concert including Also sprach Zarathustra and a contemporary composition.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the US première of Tansy Davies' Forest, a work intended to evoke a Romantic sensation of mystery and nature.

Jumping in to cover for Valery Gergiev,  Susanna Mälkki made a promising debut with the LSO, offering a commendable, if flawed, Also sprach Zarathustra.

Clear playing from Pierre-Laurent Aimard in the Emperor Concerto and a sense of the dramatic in Also sprach Zarathustra brought life to old warhorses, while a new concerto from Tansy Davies made waves.

Strauss' great tone poem whirls around the auditorium in a short but sweet concert.

Mixed results in Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s weighty program of Kodály, Ives, and Strauss alongside the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Baiba Skride. 

The space-themed Prom 29 matches old favourites with new works in joyous performances.

Variety, energy and drama with Long Yu and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

The Leipzig Kapellmeister Riccardo Chailly and his Gewandhausorchester demonstrate style and substance in two tone poems by Richard Strauss, with Christian Tetzlaff as the soloist in Mozart's K216 concerto.

Pianist Joela Jones gives a virtuoso solo performance in Messian's *Couleurs de la cité céleste*.

Marc Albrecht’s tribute to Richard Strauss featured soprano Emily Magee in a poignantly elusive Four Last Songs and culminated in a stupendously played Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The beginning of a concert season given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is always eagerly anticipated – especially when directed by their Principal, award-winning conductor, Kirill Karabits.

So begins the fifth year of Alan Gilbert’s quest to make the New York Philharmonic the very model of a modern symphony orchestra: a concert in which the music director spent the vast majority of this time seated stock still; in which the luckier of the musicians spent most of their hours looking up at a big screen; and in which the audience spent most of their evening entranced by visuals and jump

Featuring works inspired by Shelley, the Kalevala and Nietzsche (with a piano concerto thrown in for good measure), the programme for Prom 64 was certainly wide-ranging. The theme for the concert was the development of the tone poem, with the Bantock, Sibelius and Strauss pinned together by the idea of nature and the supernatural.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra brought their HD Odyssey to a packed Bridgewater Hall, giving an audiovisual feast of John Adams, Richard Strauss and Gustav Holst alongside impressive footage of the Earth and space.The format was quite straightforward, with films playing on a large screen above the stage whilst the orchestra worked their way through the rich sound palettes of the programme.

François-Xavier Roth conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a varied programme of Mozart, Webern and Strauss, concluding with a powerful performance of Also Sprach Zarathustra at St David’s Hall in Cardiff.It was hard to spot a linking factor between the programmed works, but they seemed to complement each other nicely.

A pub quiz question for you, dear reader: with which work did 20th century music begin? The rest is noise, Alex Ross's history of 20th century music, opens with Richard Strauss's 1905 opera Salome, focusing particularly on its final bars. As Princess Salome is crushed under the shields of King Herod's guard, the music turns to what Ross describes as "...a tumult... a howl... a shriek...

“Cinderella” and “ballet” might ordinarily suggest glockenspiel-topped delicacy; not in Prokofiev’s case. His ballet Cinderella, and the selection from it chosen by the RSNO, contains great variety. The Introduction’s darkness hints at the exploitation and neglect which are to be vanquished by love and happiness.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra continued their pairing of Beethoven and Strauss with two works based on different types of heros – the tragic hero of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and the more Romantic, all-conquering hero of Strauss’ Thus Spake Zarathustra, based on Nietzsche’s book.

The music of Richard Strauss is dramatic, radical and philosophical. It is also a surprisingly good cure for a February cold; its sheer vitality blows away those winter blues.