From the triumphant to the tragic: heroic stories in music

In 2023/24, the Berliner Philharmoniker will explore various concepts of heroism in music as part of their thematic focus of “Heroes”: whether based on the principle of “per aspera ad astra” (through hardships to the stars) as exemplified by Ludwig van Beethoven in his Eroica, a clever storyteller like Scheherazade, or the idea of self-realisation in art as we find in Richard Strauss. Our playlist with works from Wagner to Williams offers you a foretaste.