Berlin Philharmonic horn player Stefan Dohr and conductor Johannes Debus make their WASO debut with some of the twentieth century’s most breathtaking symphonies.Hailed by the New York Chronicle as “the king of his instrument”, Dohr will perform Strauss’ blazing Second Horn Concerto. Inspired by Botticelli’s painting Primavera, Debussy’s early symphonic suite Printemps already shows his predilection for ‘impressionist’ harmonies. By contrast, Richard Strauss’ Second Horn Concerto blazes with late-style brilliance. Elgar himself described his Second Symphony as “the passionate pilgrimage of the soul”. Its aching tenderness and melancholy is typically Elgarian, but the astonishing orchestral colours, audacious design and sheer power are breath-taking and make it one of the twentieth-century’s greatest symphonies.