The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain with Sir Mark Elder

Any concert by the world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers is an event – with 160 of the nation’s most talented young musicians cramming the stage, how couldn’t it be? But this concert goes further still, offering a spectacular journey through the natural world focused on Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. It’s a vast tone poem depicting the ascent and descent of a mountain; in his words, no less than an act of ‘worship of eternal, magnificent nature’. By any standards it’s an extravagantly scaled piece, featuring a huge orchestra with offstage brass and a massive percussion section including wind machine. Having such forces at his command enables Strauss to capture every detail of the journey with photorealistic immediacy and, of course, to deliver its awe-inspiring moments – sunrise, the view from the summit, and a cataclysmic storm – with unforgettable power.