The Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss are amongst the most divinely ravishing meditations on cycles of life, time and age in existence. While Ravel’s La Valse is an incisive replica of Viennese waltzes but viewed through the lens of history post-World War 1, Brahms’ Fourth Symphony is a bittersweet farewell to the old world in the rapidly changing social landscape of the late nineteenth century. In combination, these works offer a compelling glimpse of an era at its close.

Ravel                           La Valse

Strauss, R                    Four Last Songs

Brahms                        Symphony No. 4