Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO May 5-10. Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles was praised for his "masterful leadership of the orchestra" (The News-Gazette) after concerts with the CSO in October 2014. He returns to Symphony Center to lead a program including Richard Strauss' spectacular and brilliant tone poem Death and Transfiguration. Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da requiem paves the way for fellow Englishman Edward Elgar's popular Enigma Variations, 14 intriguing musical portraits of the composer's friends and family.