The Siegried Idyll, which Wagner composed utilising themes from the third act of his Siegfried opera, was first performed at Christmas 1870 on Cosima’s birthday. Wagner presents the vigorous melodies of fulfilled happiness from the opera, placing those depicting all conquering heroism on the back burner.

According to Wagner’s biographers, this more relaxed and balanced tone faithfully reflects the happiness of the composer’s private life: his works were being performed more frequently, and the Munich premiere of Meistersingers (1868) brought him his long awaited major breakthrough. In 1869, Cosima gave birth to Wagner’s first son (Siegfried Richard), and he was close to completing the Ring Cycle. By 1870, there were no longer any obstacles preventing him marrying Cosima Liszt. This composition was first performed in the early morning on the steps of the Tribschen Villa, in front of Cosima’s door, Wagner having adjusted the score to chamber music proportions.

The Siegfried Idyll is actually a late manifestation of the 18th century serenade music. Its musical material commences with the enchanting melody accompanying Brünnhilde’s awakening. Subsequently we hear Siegfried’s horn motif and in the culmination of the composition, forest bird song.

Horn Concerto in E-flat major no. 3, K. 447

All of Mozart’s three horn concertos are in E-flat major. The K. 447 is thought to have been composed in the same year as Don Giovanni. The natural horn it would have been played on originally had no valves, meaning that pitch changes could be achieved through, among other things, modulating lip tension and placing the hand in the bell. The main theme and secondary theme of the opening movement are highly melodious, and the slow movement feels like an opera aria, together with the characteristically Mozartian chromatic passages. The concerto rounds off with a “hunting” style finale in 6/8 time.

Zarathustra or Zoroaster was a prophet living in ancient Persia. His name was made known to modern man by the German philosopher and poet Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) seminal work, Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1885). In writing his work, as Strauss wrote, “I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music Nietzsche’s great work. I wished to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Superman.” The large-scale tone poem explores the gamut of human emotion.