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Santtu conducts Wagner’s Ring Without Words

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Booking for Friends of the Philharmonia opens at 10am on Thursday, 1 July. General booking opens Thursday, 8 July.

Soprano Miah Persson

Artists

Santtu-Matias Rouvali – conductor
Miah Persson – soprano

Programme

R Strauss Four Last Songs

— Interval —

Wagner The Ring Without Words

Is it possible to take Wagner’s Ring Cycle – four operas lasting a total of 15 hours with a sprawling cast of characters from Norse mythology – and condense it into something that would fit onto a single CD, in which not a note is sung?

Composer and conductor Lorin Maazel accepted the challenge, and the result is The Ring Without Words (or as a New York Times headline put it, ‘One Ring to Shrink Them All’). All the great moments of The Ring are here. From our first glimpse of the bubbling waters of the Rhine, to the final destruction of Valhalla, via the lives, loves and deaths of heroes and dwarves, dragons and gods, the story is told in Wagner’s inimitably dramatic orchestral writing.

Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, too, deal with life and death, but in a much more intimate and peaceful way. Strauss was 84 when he set these intensely moving poems contemplating autumn, sunset and sleep. They were premiered by the Philharmonia and soprano Kirsten Flagstad. Our soloist is Miah Persson, ‘one of the most intelligent Strauss sopranos of our time at the peak of her powers’ (Bachtrack).

This concert is supported by Latifa and Aboudi Kosta.

Need to know

Prices & Discounts

£13 – £65

Multi-buy offer available; under-18s and concessions discounts available;

Student tickets

£8

Available through Student Pulse.
Limited availability.

Running time:

1h 50 minutes, including a 20 minute interval

Recommended age

From 7+

Programme notes

Read the programme notes here. Free printed programmes will be available at the venue.

Box office

Philharmonia Box Office: 0800 652 6717

 

Before the concert

Woman and man in a panel discussion.

Insights talk

Thursday 4 November 2021, 6pm, Royal Festival Hall

Professor Natasha Loges discusses this evening’s programme. Free, no ticket required.

Venue

Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX

View on Google Maps

Part of Human/Nature Series

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