| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Jan-2013 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Where the noise began: Richard Strauss at the Royal Festival Hall |
 A pub quiz question for you, dear reader: with which work did 20th century music begin? The rest is noise, Alex Ross's history of 20th century music, opens with Richard Strauss's 1905 opera Salome, focusing particularly on its final bars. As Princess Salome is crushed under the shields of King Herod's guard, the music turns to what Ross describes as "...a tumult... a howl... a shriek... In effect, the opera ends with eight bars of noise". Last night's all-Strauss concert, which closed with the Dance of the Seven Veils and the last scene from Salome marked the start of a year-long programme of events dedicated to telling the story of 20th century music, inspired by and named after Ross's book.
Read full review... | |
