On the last day of the four-week music festival, which had no lack of highlights, Kent Nagano and the Mahler Chamber Orcestra were the ones in the (lime-)light.

The program of the final concert consisted of the rarely played orchestral version of the “Grosse Fuge” (Op. 133) by Beethoven, the Metamorphoses by Richard Strauss and the 1st Symphony (Op. 68) by Johannes Brahms.

Metamorphoses

Richard Strauss wrote the “Metamorphoses” in 1945 in just one month, finishing them less than four weeks before Germany’s unconditional surrender in May of that year. Strauss composed the half-hour-long adagio under the direct impression of the bombed-out opera house and general destruction in Munich, the city of his birth. In the first drafts, he gave the piece the title “Sorrow over Munich”.

For Richard Strauss, who had celebrated many successes in famous opera houses, their destruction marked the end of an era. He called the “Metamorphoses” a “reflection of his entire past life”. A French critic said euphorically: “Perhaps Strauss lived for 85 years just to create this splendid work.”

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Kent Nagano conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. A former youth orchestra, it was founded by Claudio Abbado. Its members, who come from around 20 different countries, travel in to meet up for project phases.

In an interview with DW, Kent Nagano had this to say about the impressive performance of the “Metamorphoses”: “There is something destructive also to be heard in the harmonic structure of this work. Metamorphosis means change, transformation and, in the end, the creation of something new.”

And something new is created every year at the Beethovenfest as well: old compositions are played in new interpretations, new ones are premiered, and the new joins with the old – a metamorphosis and a new beginning. We invite you to join us in looking forward to the Beethovenfest in 2010.

Program:

Richard Strauss

Metamorphoses - Study for 23 solo strings

Performed by:

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Conductor: Kent Nagano

Performed in the Beethoven-Halle Bonn on October 3, 2009 and recorded by West German Radio, Cologne (WDR)