Prom 51: Strauss, Wagner & Per Nørgård by Wagner, Richard, Strauss, Nørgård, Fra (2018/2018), Dirigent Thomas Dausgaard, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Premiered in 1976, Per Nørgård’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 Byström. Strauss’s luminous Four Last Songs and Wagner’s shimmering Prelude to Act I of Parsifal set the tone for a concert rich in melody and orchestral beauty, which climaxes in Danish composer Per Norgard’s extraordinary, eclectic Third Symphony.