Performance on 3 - Martinu, Mahler, Strauss - Part 1

Presented by Petroc Trelawny. From the Barbican in London, Jiri Belohlavek conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme including a Martinu symphony and a favourite work by Strauss. Martinu's Second Symphony, dating from 1943, contains effervescent music written to honour the defiant courage of Czechs living under Nazi oppression. It is followed by Strauss' richly romantic Four Last Songs, written in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the octogenarian increasingly sought refuge in nostalgic memories of times past. Completed less than a year before the composer's death, they stand as an elegiac farewell to the world, and are sung by Anne Schwanewilms, who is considered among the finest of Strauss interpreters. Anne Schwanewilms (soprano) BBC Symphony Orchestra Jiri Belohlavek (conductor) Martinu: Symphony No 2 Strauss: Four Last Songs.