Richard Strauss composed his Oboe Concerto in what has been described by some as his ‘Indian Summer', that creative period which began at about the time of his eightieth birthday, in 1944. The Symphonic Fantasy: Aus Italien, meanwhile, was composed when the composer was just twenty-two; Christoph König opens the concert with its first movement, which Strauss himself called ‘a prelude'. The afternoon - and the series - closes with Dvořák's rarely performed Fifth Symphony; it is full of folk-influenced melodies from his native Bohemia - and well worth discovering.....
The concert will be recorded for future broadcast on Â鶹Éç Radio 3.