Schumann’s Manfred Overture marks the start of this concert by the Orchestre national de Lyon conducted by its Music Director Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Manfred, first performed in 1852, is a dramatic poem inspired by Lord Byron’s play. This overture, with its strongly contrasting themes, bears the imprint of the hero’s despair. The second work is Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration, premiered in 1890. It depicts a man on the brink of death, with the first part showing the throes of agony, followed by deliverance and transfiguration in the second.