La Jeunesse d'Hercule by Saint-Saëns tells of how, at the beginning of his life, Heracles had to choose between two paths: that of joie de vivre or that of virtue. Unable to be seduced by the nymphs and bacchanals, the hero embarks on a life full of battles and challenges, at the end of which immortality beckons to him through the flames of the stake as a reward. The dance of death Danse macabre by the same composer, on the other hand, reminds us in a very special way of the transience of life.

In his Double Concerto for two trumpets, David Philip Hefti, who lives in Basel, will not only deal with the heroic and martial sound of the instrument.

Death as redemption and entry into paradise: This is the basic attitude of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem. There is no other requiem in the entire musical literature with such a conciliatory and optimistic treatment of the theme of death. The work, written in 1887, is, according to Fauré's own statement, «dominated by human confidence in eternity.»