‘Antwerp Symphony Orchestra’

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the distinguished soprano Marita Sølberg and the Ghent conductor Philippe Herreweghe beckon you into the atmosphere created by the leading composers of German Romanticism. It was on Christmas morning in 1870 that Richard Wagner offered the Siegfried Idyll to his wife Cosima, which is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most beautiful musical gifts in history. The incurably romantic Robert Schumann also offered his wife Clara a composition as a birthday present: the revised version of his Symphony in D minor, known as the Fourth Symphony. Written in the fading twilight of old age, Richard Strauss'  Vier letzte Lieder, poems by Hesse and Eichendorff set to music, convey the composer's deep sense of gratitude to his wife Pauline, for all the times they had shared as a couple.