Even though Strauss had Kirsten Flagstad in mind when he wrote the Four Last Songs, they're more typically sung by a lyric than a dramatic soprano – an Elsa or Eva rather than an Isolde or Brűnnhilde – and so Watson was an unusual choice. She made a gorgeous sound throughout, and her dark tone especially suited the autumnal mood of the closing song, ”Im Abendrot” (In Twilight). She can float a high note more easily than most dramatic sopranos and would appear to have everything necessary to be someday an outstanding interpreter of the set. But the words were hardly in evidence, except in ”Im Abendrot,” and she projected a nearly unvaried mood. ”Frühling” (Spring) needed more exaltation, and “September” sounded too much like ”Frühling.” A Contra Costa Times interview of June 10 noted that this was Watson's first time performing the Strauss, so we can look forward to hearing what she can do with the songs in a few years' time.

The concert also included one oddity, a performance of the orchestral accompaniment to Arnold Schoenberg's choral work, Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth), without chorus. Schoenberg originally created this accompaniment to help choruses sing the piece in tune, and the program notes weakly justified performing the accompaniment alone by quoting a Schoenberg scholar who feels that the composer would have approved. The orchestration is certainly colorful and interesting, and it spotlights the complex, not-yet-serial, counterpoint and harmony – but what is the point of performing a choral work without the chorus?

The concert opened with Schubert's Fourth Symphony, the “Tragic.” The different sections of the orchestra conducted an eloquent conversation in the slow introduction to the first movement, but as soon as the body of the movement arrived, the orchestral balance went awry. The too-numerous strings overwhelmed the winds; inner voices got lost in rapid figuration and some counterpoint in the winds was entirely inaudible. The Andante was sweet and thoroughly charming. On paper, the rhythms of the Scherzo are very much at odds with the meter, and in a good performance this leaves the listener feeling like the music's dancing on the edge of a precipice. This performance was too careful and too slow – it was earthbound, and there was no sense of danger at all. The Trio danced along gracefully and made an excellent contrast to the thumping Scherzo. The Schubert reached its greatest excitement and intensity in the last movement.

Watson received an enormous ovation following the Liebestod, and the concert closed with a rare (said Nagano) encore, Strauss's Morgen! As before, Watson's tone and line were impeccable, her use of the text far from ideal. Concertmaster Stuart Canin provided a lovely, restrained performance of the crucial violin obbligato.