Richard Strauss composed more than 40 orchestral songs over a period of decades - all of them are to be performed over several seasons, with a whole host of outstanding singers. No two songs are the same, each has its own tonal characteristics; the range of Straussʼ song writing is indeed enormous. With his 6th Symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote himself into history as one of the founders of a special kind of ‘programme music’. The Sinfonia pastorale, as he himself called it, became a powerful work and yet is full of catchiness, grace and charm - in the form of five musical scenes of sharp profile and concise expression that tell of nature and country life.