Radio 3 in Concert: Sublime Swansong

Ahead of Saturday's hotly-anticipated Cardiff Singer of the World final, Georgia Mann introduces a concert recorded at the Grand Hall of Frankfurt's Alte Oper featuring the 1999 Cardiff winner. Since then, German soprano Anja Harteros has enjoyed a stellar international career in both opera house and concert hall, with Strauss's moving farewell to life, the Four Last Songs, one of her party pieces. Book-ending the concert given by the Frankfurt Radio SO and their Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada are Wagner's erotically-charged music from Tristan und Isolde and Shostakovich's final symphony. Wagner: Prelude und Isolde Liebestod (Tristan and Isolde). Strauss: Four Last Songs. Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 in A, Op 141. Anja Harteros (soprano). Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada (conductor)