Metamorphosen Reflections

Some Hallam Sinfonia projects take years to come to fruition – our concert built around Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen is one of these. In 2019, fired up by Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the orchestra’s cello-playing Strauss enthusiasts dreamed about playing this unique work, with its 23 independent string parts – 10 violins, five each of violas and cellos, three basses. A pandemic and other factors got in the way for a bit, but finally, under the expert guidance of Richard Jenkinson, an old friend of the orchestra, it actually happened.

Metamorphosen is an elegy for German culture in the aftermath of the Second World War. Strauss was deeply affected by the destruction of his favourite opera houses, including

Munich and Dresden, and other iconic cultural symbols. His lament references Goethe, for whom metamorphosis was a lifelong preoccupation, and Beethoven. The Metamorphosen themes are transformed and developed in the course of the work, and only in the last few bars does another theme, the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, emerge from the shadows, where it has clearly been lurking all along. After this, in the score, Strauss wrote the words ‘In Memoriam’.

The other works in the programme, as different as they are in style and mood, have been chosen for their Strauss connections. Mozart, regarded by Strauss as the greatest composer of all, was a huge influence on him, while Elgar became a personal friend. Filmgoers may have noted the comments in Alan Bennett’s new film, ‘The Choral’ about Elgar’s pre-First World War reputation in Germany - ‘a god, up there with Wagner!’ Much of this was due to Strauss who championed Elgar’s works in Germany after the resounding success of ‘The Dream of Gerontius’. Sadly both the friendship and the performances of each other’s works were disrupted by this war.

Our concert will take place almost exactly 80 years to the day after the first performance of Metamorphosen. Germany may have been rebuilt since then but other places in the world have recently been reduced by bombing to heaps of rubble. Food for thought perhaps as we experience the intense emotional highs and lows of this powerful music.

Our performance of Metamorphosen, paired with Mozart's Divertimento in F and Elgar's Serenade for Strings, will be at Channing Hall on Sunday 1 February 2026 at 3.00pm. Further information and tickets are available here.