Performance

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

0 upcoming performances in New York

Richard Strauss’s tone poem *Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks* (1894–95) follows a folkloric trickster through a chain of quick scenes, heard in sharply etched themes and abrupt turns of mood. Part narrative, part orchestral character study, it helped define the late‑Romantic taste for storytelling without words, with an irony that can feel almost modern. At David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic performs it under Nikolaj Szeps‑Znaider within a program that also includes Bruch and Elgar. Details of a specific New York City premiere are not firmly established in standard references, but the piece has long functioned here as a compact test of an orchestra’s wit, balance, and timing.