In your opinion, what sets Strauss’ work apart from his contemporaries? 
Strauss uses a palate not dissimilar to [Gustav] Mahler where there is so much independence of lines. Unlike a composer, say Bruckner or Brahms who also have independent lines, but they are interweaving. The interweaving in the works of Mahler and Strauss is on another level. Sometimes, there can be 20 different voices doing 20 completely independent things doing things that are completely complex. It is incredibly delicate work to rehearse and prepare as well, because there is so much to make clear in the narrative as to what the conductor or the performers want to make the primary or the secondary line. There is a lot to decipher. I always think that of all the work that I do, Strauss and Mahler give me the most amount of stress in the studying process because they have that much more to decipher, to get to grips with it. He is something of a genius, as well as a wonderful tunesmith, the end of the suites we play, consists of some of the most beautiful music ever composed on earth, ever, in existence. 

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What were the challenges when bringing together such distinct individual pieces in a unified performance, in terms of the studying process? 
These pieces are difficult. Strauss’s piece is one of the toughest pieces I have ever done; Petrushka I have done before a lot but it’s not something that you can just pull off. It is extremely complicated, and you often need the conductor to be secure in what he is doing. Every five to six bars, the music is developing. As this is a ballet score, the music is always changing. And that’s the difficulty. Sometimes there’s no relation between one section and another section — there are just different ideas. And to have this clear in my head, is a challenge. My job is to present all this as one story to the audience.       

On: September 20; 7 pm 
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