On February 27, 2025, Manfred Honeck conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra, performing Richard Strauss Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) with sublime soprano Renée Fleming. They'll also play highlights from Puccini’s Turandot and music by Suppé and MacMillan.
Sublime music depicting calm after a storm
At the end of his long career, Richard Strauss composed the Four Last Songs, a musical embrace in which calm and acceptance prevail. And what better interpreter of such calm after the storm than Renée Fleming, whose warm voice and vocal mastery every listener should be lucky enough to hear live?
Over 20 years since his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut, Manfred Honeck has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s leading conductors.
In addition to Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the Austrian conductor leads the orchestra in a self-arranged suite of highlights from Puccini’s last opera, Turandot. The music enveloping this cruel tale, sometimes highly lyrical, then exciting and exuberant, is beautifully expressed in an instrumental suite.
The concert opens with Franz von Suppé’s Overture from Dichter und Bauer, and after the interval the orchestra will perform the Scottish composer James MacMillan’s moving Larghetto.
Puccini - Turandot symphonic suite, orchestrated by Manfred Honeck
Performers
Manfred Honeck - conductor
Renée Fleming - soprano
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was founded in 1888. Its distinctive sound has made it one of the world’s leading orchestras.
The orchestra is famous for its renditions of works by Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner, and for its long-standing concert traditions such as the St Matthew Passion in the week before Easter and the Christmas Matinee. It has always worked closely with contemporary composers.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra has had just seven chief conductors to date. The eighth has been announced: Klaus Mäkelä will become chief conductor in 2027. The coming season sees five extraordinary programmes with Klaus Mäkelä at the helm.
Buy your tickets now!
A free glass of wine and use of the staffed cloakroom are included in the price of admission. Get your tickets on the Concertgebouw Orchestra website.
