Arnold Schönberg himself arranged his successful late-romatic string sextet „Verklärte Nacht“ (Transfigured Night) from 1899 for string orchestra – and did so so masterfully that its fragile passages are wonderfully brought out despite the larger instrumentation.

After the intermission, Christoph Eschenbach conducts a much larger ensemble with Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, which the composer wrote from 1881 to 1883. Meanwhile, Richard Wagner died. Bruckner wrote his mourning for his revered colleague in the coda of the Adagio, which is intoned by Wagner tubas and horns.