Strauss & Wagner

Anthony Hermus conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at BBC Hoddinott Hall on Sunday 17 January 2027, with soprano Katharine Dain joining them for the first half. It's a matinee, starting at 15:00, and it pairs two of the biggest names in the orchestral repertoire: Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.

The first half is Strauss's Four Last Songs, composed in 1948, just a year before he died. They're some of the most luminous farewells in music, setting contemplative texts that draw you into what Strauss called 'the magic circle of the night'. It's a short set, about 24 minutes, and it's the only part of the afternoon that features a singer.

After the interval, the focus shifts to Wagner with Tristan und Isolde: An Orchestral Passion, which takes up the bulk of the programme at 60 minutes. It's an orchestral synthesis of the opera, arranged and orchestrated by Henk de Vlieger, and it's long enough to stand as a concert work in its own right. The lush romantic surface hides a daring harmonic language that changed music history, and here you get to hear it without the stage action around it.

The whole thing is part of the BBC NOW 2026-27 season, so it's one of the dates they've got lined up for the year. Tickets are £15 for over 65s, £12 for disabled, and £7 for under 26s and students. The concert starts at 15:00 at BBC Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.