On Jan. 7, the New York Philharmonic concluded its four concert performances of Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra.” The concert cycle featured Strauss’s famed tone poem, Berlioz’s Song Cycle “Les ...

Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” like all this composer’s tone poems, can come off leaden and overlong. Berlioz’s set of six songs “Les Nuits d’Été” can feel too delicate to ...