“Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde

At this stage in Tristan und Isolde the audience has been in the opera house for several hours and is awaiting the great emotional climax and sublime culmination of the work where Isolde, in her all-consuming love for the murdered Tristan, wills herself to die beside him. Arranged for orchestra alone, with the soprano part transferred to whatever instrument is both suitable and available, this “love-death” is scarcely less effective as a concert item - carried on its arching melodic line to an infinity of ecstasy before dying away to extinction - than it is in the opera house.