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RICHARD STRAUSS

Musikalische Leitung: Asher Fisch
Sopran: Pretty Yende
Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

When people hear the opening of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra op. 30 (“Thus Spake Zarathustra”), some people immediately think of Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey , others of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche – and it was indeed Nietzsche’s powerful, eponymous work of philosophical fiction that inspired Strauss to compose this work, one of his most fascinating tone poems. It reveals the young composer as a remarkable musical innovator whose orchestral imagination took him far beyond the bounds of the “cosy Bavarian” persona that he later cultivated. The score could almost have been tailor-made for the virtuosic skills of the Erl Festival Orchestra.

Our programme is complemented by The Midnight Hour (2015), the first-ever work to be performed here by the Australian composer Anna Clyne. It is precisely her luminous art of orchestration and her delight in the ecstatic possibilities of orchestral sound that makes Clyne’s work a surprisingly apt bridge to Strauss’s symphonic sound world.

Another highlight of this evening in the Passionsspielhaus will be Pretty Yende, who will be adding Strauss’s Four Last Songs to her repertoire and will make this an evening to appeal to all enthusiastic music-lovers.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Vier letzte Lieder

Anna Clyne (*1980)
This Midnight Hour für Orchester

Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra. Sinfonische Dichtung op. 30

Team

Asher Fisch Musikalische Leitung

Asher Fisch is Chief Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and has been Music Director of the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl since the beginning of the 2024/25 season. He is internationally recognized as one of the leading conductors and has an extensive repertoire that covers both opera and concert areas. He began his career as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim and as a conductor at the Berlin State Opera. Since then, he has conducted at major European opera houses, including Vienna, Milan, Munich, Paris and Madrid. As an acknowledged Wagner specialist, Fisch has recorded two complete "Ring" cycles as well as "Tristan und Isolde". In addition, he has intensively studied the Italian repertoire and recently released a Puccini album together with tenor Jonas Kaufmann, the new Artistic Director of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl.

As a concert conductor, Asher Fisch has led renowned US American and European orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France and the London Symphony Orchestra. Asher Fisch is also active as a pianist and can be experienced in piano concerts, with chamber music and as a song accompanist.

Pretty Yende Sopran

South African soprano Pretty Yende was a scholarship recipient at the South African College of Music in Cape Town and graduated from the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Her career has taken her to the world’s major opera stages, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra national de Paris, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She has appeared on stage as Violetta (La traviata), Elvira (I puritani), Amina (La sonnambula), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), as well as Manon and Lucia di Lammermoor. In the summer of 2026, she made her debut at the Tyrolean Festival Erl as Leonora (Il trovatore).

Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

The music springs from the enthusiasm of a motivated and exceptionally well-prepared ensemble that has grown together over the years. The Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl was first formed in the summer of 1999—and today, musicians from 20 nations play together. Already in its first year, the ensemble achieved unprecedented success, which would go on to bring international recognition to the the Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Top young talents, musicians from major international orchestras, chamber music specialists, and lecturers come together annually in summer and winter—and since 2017, also in fall and spring—as part of the Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Under the direction of festival founder Gustav Kuhn, the orchestra garnered rave reviews from international critics and cemented its reputation as one of the world’s finest Wagner orchestras. With the start of Jonas Kaufmann’s tenure as artistic director in September 2024, Asher Fisch—a conductor in high demand internationally in both opera and concert settings—has taken over the helm of the orchestra.