Prom 31 – Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Other Romantics

Part of the BBC Proms.

The Ulster Orchestra and Chief Conductor Daniele Rustioni take us from the physical to the metaphysical in a sumptuous celebration of German Romanticism. The Overture and Venusberg Music from Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser plays out the drama’s battle between the sensual and the spiritual in miniature, with restraint thrown to the wind in its heady Bacchanal (see also Proms 55 and 72). Darker themes come to the fore in Schumann’s restless Symphony No. 4 and the yearning musical farewell of Strauss’ Four Last Songs, performed here by Louise Alder, while Mahler’s brief serenade Blumine, once part of his First Symphony, offers a moonlit moment of peace.