Richard Strauss at 150: A week of special Full Works Concerts

As the composer of such radical operas as Salomé and Elektra, Richard Strauss made musical history - but there's so much to discover from this great composer.

Jane Jones marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the composer Richard Strauss with a week-long celebration on the Full Works Concert.

Every night night Jane will feature one of his great tone poems and other famous compositions, as well as works that he conducted or by composers he admired. She will also be casting the spotlight on Strauss the man and the relationships he formed with other musicians.

VIEW GALLERY: Richard Strauss - 15 facts about the great composer >

This week's concerts:

Monday 9th June
Ein Heldenleben - 'A Hero's Life' - and the Oboe Concerto are the major works in our first look at the life and works of Richard Strauss. 

Mozart: Cosi fan Tutte, Overture - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Simon Rattle
Strauss: Oboe Concerto - Douglas Boyd/Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Paavo Berglund
Strauss: Morgen - Kate Royal/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Edward Gardner
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Simon Rattle
Wagner: Tristan and Isolde, Prelude to Act I - Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Antonio Pappano 
Strauss: Serenade in E-flat major - Britten Sinfonia/Nicolas Cleobury 

Tuesday 10 June
The celebration continues with Strauss's tone poem Don Juan, the magnificent Alpine Symphony, and his Horn Concerto No.1.  

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel, Overture - Staatskapelle Dresden/Colin Davis
Strauss: Horn Concerto No.1 in E-flat major - Dale Clevenger/Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim
Strauss: Don Juan - New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Lorin Maazel
Strauss: Romance for Clarinet and Orchestra in E-flat major - Karl-Heinz Steffens/Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Karl Anton Rickenbacher
Strauss: Alpine Symphony - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernard Haitink

Wednesday 11th June
Jane Jones presents three very different works by Richard Strauss, starting with Also Sprach Zarathustra, made famous by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The concert climaxes with a symphony by Gustav Mahler, a composer whom Strauss greatly admired and whose music he regularly conducted.

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Zubin Mehta 
Strauss: Wiegenlied - Barbara Bonney/Malcolm Martineau 
Strauss: Capriccio, Prelude - Artemis Quartet/Thomas Kakuska/Valentin Erben 
Mahler: Symphony No.1 in D major, 'Titan' - Philadelphia Orchestra/Riccardo Muti

Thursday 12th June
Jane Jones presents an overture to one of the Mozart operas that Strauss championed during his career as an opera conductor, and Brahms’s choral masterpiece Schicksalslied, which Strauss conducted in one of his first concerts.

Mozart: The Magic Flute, Overture - Sinfonia Varsovia/Yehudi Menuhin
Strauss: Horn Concerto No.2 in E-flat major - David Pyatt/Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Cleobury
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration - New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Lorin Maazel
Brahms: Schicksalslied - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Choir of the Vienna Friends of Music/Wolfgang Sawallisch
Strauss: March in E-flat major - Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Karl Anton Rickenbacher
Strauss: Metamorphosen - Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Iona Brown

Friday 13th June
Our Richard Strauss week comes to a close with his haunting Four Last Songs and dazzling tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.
Jane Jones picks Richard Strauss's final masterpiece as one of her stand-out works > 

Wagner: Tannhauser, Overture - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Claudio Abbado
Mozart: Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor - Alessio Bax/Southbank Sinfonia/Simon Over
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche - San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Blomstedt
Strauss: Romance in F major - Steven Isserlis/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Lorin Maazel
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, Waltz Sequence No.1 - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Strauss: Four Last Songs - Nina Stemme/Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Antonio Pappano