With his symphonic poems, Franz Liszt founded a new, pioneering genre of orchestral music around the middle of the 19th century. Over the next few years, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin will be exploring this musical cosmos, which is itself highly innovative and still seems extremely bold today. They will begin with performances of the famous Bergsinfonie, for which the literary-minded Liszt was inspired by a poem by Victor Hugo, and of Tasso, lamento e trionfo, a musical reflection on the legendary Renaissance poet who took shape through Goethe and Byron. In addition, a second cycle begins - the performance of the complete orchestral songs by Richard Strauss, which illuminates a special facet of this composer of the century, also a cross-seasonal project.