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The festival is delighted to welcome American soprano Christine Brewer, widely regarded as one of today’s greatest interpreters of Richard Strauss’s achingly beautiful songs – his farewell to the world.

The songs are the centrepiece of an evening of romantic nostalgia, beginning with Wagner’s lovely reminiscence of his great ‘Ring’ cycle, played on Christmas morning as a present to his wife Cosima.

Elgar’s affectionate tribute to his ‘friends pictured within’ contains humour as well as regret, but ends in uplifting triumph.