| Silja Aalto | Soprano |
| Anssi Karttunen | Violonchelo |
| Seong-Jin Cho | Piano |
| BBC Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sakari Oramo | Dirección |
When the 14-year-old Richard Strauss got caught in a storm, lost in the mist, soaked by the rain or blistered by the sun while out mountaineering, his response was to sit at the piano and improvise a musical description of the experience. That sowed the seeds for a work born 35 years later: An Alpine Symphony. This spectacular symphony, which calls for an orchestra of 130 musicians – including wind machine, thunder machine, cowbells, organ and offstage brass – will surely raise the roof of the Royal Albert Hall. But only after Mozart – at his most charming in the Piano Concerto No. 9 – and the late Kaija Saariaho’s Mirage, a hypnotic snapshot of womanhood for soprano, cello and orchestra.
Seats from £11 to £54 (plus booking fee). On sale 18 May
Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3