Рихард Штраус: Метаморфозы | Рено Капусон и струнный оркестр Bel Air Festival Orchestra

A deeply melancholy work from the final weeks of World War II the end of which marks its 80th anniversary in May 2025: The Metamorphoses by Richard Strauss. The piece is performed by the strings of the Bel Air Festival Orchestra under the musical direction of Renaud Capuçon. The concert took place at the Bel Air Festival on September 3, 2010, in the Espace Malraux in the French city of Chambéry.

Metamorphoses. Study for 23 solo strings (TrV 290) is the last instrumental work that Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) completed. The dates of composition can be found in the printed score: at the beginning it says, “begun March 13, 1945” and at the end “GARMISCH, April 12, 1945”. The roughly 30-minute, single-movement work for string instruments is dedicated to Paul Sacher and the Collegium Musicum Zürich, who also premiered it on January 25, 1946. In 1944, the Swiss orchestra had commissioned a suite for a small ensemble of strings from Strauss, but The Metamorphoses went beyond the commissioned specifications in many respects. To this day, this “workshop work”, as Strauss referred to it, raises many questions.

Strauss himself made statements to the effect that he was not trying to express any non-musical themes musically when composing his Metamorphoses. The evocative title “Metamorphoses” has however repeatedly led to speculation about a deeper meaning. In purely formal terms, an orchestral piece in which motifs and themes are constantly changing could be called a “variation”. While composing the work, Strauss was much occupied with the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which itself makes frequent reference to the Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. However, there is no concrete evidence in Strauss' string piece or in other source texts that Strauss is referring to either of the two great poets. It is certain that Strauss only chose the title after completing the composition.

The term “study” in the subheading is also unusual. Strauss had created something new in the dense, intertwined movement of variations, as no one had ever written such a comprehensive symphonic work for 23 string instruments before. In this respect, the term “study” might be deemed appropriate. However, Strauss creates a surprising wealth of sounds considering the oddly one-sided instrumentation, so that this well-developed orchestral piece seems to go far beyond a mere study.

The greatest mystery surrounding the Metamorphoses is resolved at the end. Immediately before the last chords, a famous musical quotation is heard in the low strings (25:28): It is the main theme of the 2nd movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770 - 1827) Symphony No. 3, the Eroica Symphony. Beethoven titled the 2nd movement Marcia Funebre, and it is probably the best-known funeral march in classical music. The prominent Beethoven quote is made even more striking by a textual addition: “IN MEMORIAM!” is written below the score. The question of whose memory Strauss is commemorating has not been answered conclusively to this day. But this final phrase intensifies the already gloomy mood of Metamorphoses. In view of the dark and dramatic situation in the final weeks of the Second World War, the German composer apparently decided that it would be appropriate to return to a tried and tested work of mourning music to conclude his musical study. Not without reason The Metamorphoses has been described as perhaps the saddest piece of music ever.

Musicians:
R.Capuçon, V.Eberle, A.Ibragimova, A.Saulière, E.Abelin, G.Curtolo, L.Petrova, J.Akoka, M.Haubs, L.Martel, G.Caussé, B.Muthelet, L.Berthaud, S.Mangold, B.Engstroem, C.Hagen, G.Capuçon, M.Sudraba, H.Demarquette, Y.Levionnois, A.Posch, R.Delgado, M-A. Bonanomi

© 2010 Karl More Productions / Les Rencontres Artistiques de Bel-Air / Mezzo

Watch more concerts in YOUR PERSONAL CONCERT HALL:
   • LISTEN AND WATCH - your personal concert hall  

Subscribe to DW Classical Music:
   / dwclassicalmusic  

#metamorphoses #musicforstrings #richardstrauss