Newbury Spring Festival Britten, R Strauss, Tchaikovsky

St Nicholas Church, Newbury

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976, the concert opens with arguably his best-loved orchestral work, the Four Sea Interludes from his opera Peter Grimes. This will be followed by Richard Strauss’ finest and final vocal composition, his Four Last Songs, performed tonight by one of the world’s greatest Strauss interpreters, British soprano Elizabeth Watts. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, the Pathétique, is a deeply emotional work that famously ends in a slow, sorrowful fade to silence, subverting the typical triumphant finale, it was described by Tchaikovsky in letters as “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose”. He died nine days after its premier performance, which he conducted himself.