Astral Artists

Thu., April 16, 7:30 p.m., $30, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, astralartists.org.

by Peter Burwasser

Surrounded by the smoldering ruins of a great civilization wrecked by monsters he once served, Richard Strauss wrote his farewell to music and life in 1948. His Four Last Songs are nearly bereft of the bombast and egoism of his earlier work, as if the horrors of the preceding years exorcised his baser spirits, leaving him only with pure beauty. These profoundly moving works will be the centerpiece for the final Astral concert of the year, with the impressive young soprano Angela Meade as soloist. Rossen Milanov will lead the Symphony in C. Also music from Rachmaninoff and Currier.