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Mahler’s epic, unorthodox Third Symphony unfolds over six movements, painting a musical portrait with choir and orchestra of nature’s very essence. American conductor Alan Gilbert returns to conduct this masterpiece with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Elektra – Strauss’s brutal and ferociously powerful retelling of the Greek revenge myth – continues this weekend’s opera double bill. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov are joined by an international cast of soloists, led by American soprano Christine Goerke, with Danish baritone Johan Reuter as her beloved brother Orestes.

In Richard Strauss’s 150th-anniversary year the Proms presents a double bill of his two great tragedies. On consecutive nights his heroines Salome and Elektra meet their bloody ends in the Royal Albert Hall. Donald Runnicles brings his Deutsche Oper forces to the Proms for Salome. Star soprano Nina Stemme leads the cast as the troubled princess.

In a symphony that took over six years to complete, Mahler wrestles with the essential questions of humanity. Birth, death and the fragile stages between are the subject of this grand musical exploration, which culminates in a transcendent choral finale. Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are joined by soloists Kate Royal and Chistianne Stotijn.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Monteverdi Choir returns to the Proms under Sir John Eliot Gardiner for one of the greatest choral works of the repertoire – Beethoven’s mighty Missa solemnis. Join them on this tumultuous spiritual journey in music that defies simple resolution.