Prom 51 – Strauss, Wagner & Per Norgard

Part of the BBC Proms.

Premiered in 1976, Per Norgard’s Third Symphony is one of the great contemporary symphonies – a Danish classic that has never before been performed in the UK. Suffused with glowing microtones and thick, textural beauty, the eclectic score draws on everything from plainchant to Latin-American rhythms to spin its extraordinary narrative. Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra preface it with two works of equal sonic breadth: Wagner’s exquisite musical meditation, the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal, and the autumnal warmth of Strauss’s Four Last Songs, sung by Swedish soprano Malin Bystrom.