Performance

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

0 upcoming performances in New York

Richard Strauss’s *Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks* (1894–95) is a late‑19th‑century tone poem that tracks a folk trickster through a chain of comic episodes and abrupt reversals. Strauss assigns the prankster’s identity to quick, recurring motifs that keep slipping their narrative leash, a pointed example of orchestration used as storytelling. At David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic performs it under Nikolaj Szeps‑Znaider in a program that also includes Bruch and Elgar. The piece has long held a place in New York’s concert life, a reminder that modern orchestral music can be witty without losing its edge.