Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra

Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra take you on a journey through darkness into light with a programme inspired by composer’s reactions to the inevitability of death. Rachmaninov’s mysterious Isle of the Dead, inspired by Böcklin’s painting, takes us across the River Styx and into Liszt’s Totentanz, a terrifying dance of the dead, using the medieval Dies Irae plainchant as its foundation, performed by Stephen Smithers. Wagner’s brooding but ultimately triumphant Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March from Götterdämmerung is followed by Strauss’ epic tone poem journeying from death into the light of transfiguration.