Conflict and resignation

Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Dmitry Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 were composed only five years apart, yet they evoke sharply contrasting soundscapes. The Four Last Songs from 1948 take their words from poems by Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse. They transport the listener to a world of lyrical, Late-Romantic melancholy and resignation. These were not only Strauss’s final completed compositions but also a musical farewell to life itself. They remain among the most poignant ‘final chords’ in the entire Romantic Lieder tradition. 
 
Shostakovich offers a starkly different experience. Written in 1943, it is no surprise that his Symphony No. 8 echoes his other great ‘wartime symphony’, No. 7. The first movement subtly evokes a menacing atmosphere before the battle erupts: bombardments, resistance, and occasional glimmers of hope resound in the subsequent movements. A new work by a composition student from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam completes the programme.