Chamber Borodin Strauss

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) had collaborated with the Nazi regime, but was highly critical of many of their policies. He bitterly mourned the regime’s destruction of the rich German cultural heritage, and this work may be interpreted as a commemoration of some of its cultural treasures; there are reference both to Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies, and to music by Mozart and J.S. Bach.

“Metamophosis" means change, but Strauss never offered any detailed explanation of the title’s significance. It may in some way have been inspired by Goethe’s Metamorphoses, as Strauss was an avid reader of the writer’s work at the time. The completed version of Metamorphosen, which Strauss completed on the 12th of April 1945, and which received its world premiere in Zurich the following year, is written for 23 string instruments. In Switzerland in 1990, a previously unknown, early version of the work for string septet was discovered, and the cellist Rudolf Leopold has arranged a complete version based on the notes for septet combined with the completed version of the work from 1945.