Symphonic Journeys: Strauss, Walton, Brahms by Strauss, Walton, Brahms, Fra (2025/2025), Dirigent Rafael Payare, Jacobs Music Center, San Diego, United States

Richard Strauss’ Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration) is a monumental meditation on the journey of life, beginning in childhood, through the trials and joys of adulthood, and ending in the transfiguration of the spirit. Music Director Rafael Payare conducts the Symphony in Strauss’ powerful tone poem along with William Walton’s beautifully lyrical and nostalgic Viola Concerto, written when the composer was only 27 years old; the concerto was intended for the great soloist Lionel Tertis, who played an 18th century viola of enormous dimensions with a sound of extraordinary richness, almost like a cello. The result is one of the few widely played concertos for this instrument, demanding from the soloist the sweetest melodic playing with the most vigorous and athletic virtuosity. The concert ends with Brahms’ melancholy and hauntingly beautiful Second Symphony. This immortal work was written in one of Brahms’ favorite vacation retreats, in southern Austria on the beautiful lake of the Wörthersee. “Here," said Brahms, “the melodies grow so thick upon the ground that one must take care not to step on them as one walks.” In an equally humorous mood, he wrote to his publisher about his new symphony: “I have never written anything so sad, and the score must be published in mourning clothes.”