With “Aus Italien” Richard Strauss began his decisive journey into the musical form that would come to define his orchestral output, the tone poem, sketched while on a tour of Italy suggested to the young composer by Brahms, Strauss‘ mastery is already evident.

François-Xavier Roth couples this work on his third volume of the complete Strauss tone poems with the monumental “Also sprach Zarathustra” – inspired by Nietzsche's book philosophic prose-poem. Two great works presented in fiery performances in honor of the Richard Strauss sesquicentennial.