City of London Sinfonia - Wagner, Berlioz & Mahler

Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, one of his few non-operatic works, is a symphonic poem composed as a birthday present to his wife after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869, and first performed as a surprise when she woke. The work incorporates a German lullaby and was itself used in part for the love scene in Wagner's later opera Siegfried.

Rising star soprano Elizabeth Watts sings Berlioz' rich and sultry set of six songs in a new orchestration by David Matthews of the delicate poems by Theophile Gautier.

Tonight's arrangement by Erwin Stein of Mahler's Fourth Symphony for fifteen instruments dates from 1921. Tonight's conductor Douglas Boyd recently won critical acclaim for his recording of the piece.