Four Last Songs
Four Last Songs
We regret to announce that Lucy Crowe has had to withdraw from this performance due to seasonal illness. We are so grateful that the internationally-renowned soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn is stepping in to sing the same programme.
Wagner Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, WWV 96
Strauss Oboe Concerto in D major, TrV 292
Wagner Prelude to Act III from ‘Lohengrin’, WWV 75
Strauss Four Last Songs, TrV 296
Elizabeth Llewellyn soprano
Gordon Hunt oboe
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
In 1948, Richard Strauss sensed the end was nigh. Germany lay in ruins, its major opera houses destroyed by war. As his attempts to ignite a cultural rebirth in his homeland proved futile, Strauss turned to music. His final goodbye was a series of four iconic orchestral songs that, in the words of David Bowie, ‘ache with love for a life quietly fading.’ Elizabeth Llewellyn joins the Orchestra for a performance of Strauss’s profoundly moving musical epitaph alongside the Orchestra’s Solo Oboe Gordon Hunt performing Strauss’s tender Oboe Concerto written just a few years earlier.
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27 Nov 2025
Tickets: £18, £30, £40, £54
(Students from £5)
Duration: 120 min
Venue: Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street
(Students from £5)
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Hough plays Hough
Jun 04 2026 – 19:30
Sir Stephen Hough joins the orchestra for a performance of his own piano concerto, a work ‘of jaw-dropping complexity and finger-crunching virtuosity’.
Learn More
Rainer Küchl
Jun 06 2026 – 19:30
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is delighted to welcome Rainer Küchl for this recital at the Holywell Music Room.
Learn More
Beethoven Nine
Jun 08 2026 – 19:30
An evening of majestic, joy-filled Beethoven to celebrate Cyprus’s Presidency of the European Union.
Learn More