Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings
Richard Strauss (11th June 1864 – 8th September 1949) was a German composer… Read Full Bio ↴Richard Strauss (11th June 1864 – 8th September 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic era and early modern eras, particularly noted for his tone poems and operas which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, An Alpine Symphony, and other orchestral works, such as Metamorphosen. Strauss was also a prominent conductor throughout Germany and Austria.
Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death.
During his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, and he also received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, his father's cousin. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, and it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of Tristan und Isolde. In later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works. Nevertheless, Strauss's father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn.
In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the orchestral part himself, with his teacher and "cousin" Benno Walter as soloist. The same year he entered Munich University, where he studied Philosophy and Art History, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow, who had been enormously impressed by the young composer's Serenade for wind instruments, composed when he was only 16 years of age. Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the young man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strauss's compositions at this time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn, true to his father's teachings. His Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire.
Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, but the marriage, to all appearances, was essentially happy and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles.
The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897. Franz married Alice von Grab, a Jewish woman, in a Catholic ceremony (despite being an agnostic) in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian.
Before and during the 1939-45 War, he was criticised as a Nazi sympathiser, and held an official (musical) post. This claim is not entirely accurate. He lost the job when he refused to remove the name of a Jewish librettist from a programme. He was also condemned for criticisms of the Nazi party. He was thereafter denounced by the Nazi party, and he was forced to make concessions and submit to their will in order to save his family.
Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death.
During his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, and he also received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, his father's cousin. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, and it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of Tristan und Isolde. In later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works. Nevertheless, Strauss's father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn.
In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the orchestral part himself, with his teacher and "cousin" Benno Walter as soloist. The same year he entered Munich University, where he studied Philosophy and Art History, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow, who had been enormously impressed by the young composer's Serenade for wind instruments, composed when he was only 16 years of age. Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the young man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strauss's compositions at this time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn, true to his father's teachings. His Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire.
Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, but the marriage, to all appearances, was essentially happy and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles.
The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897. Franz married Alice von Grab, a Jewish woman, in a Catholic ceremony (despite being an agnostic) in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian.
Before and during the 1939-45 War, he was criticised as a Nazi sympathiser, and held an official (musical) post. This claim is not entirely accurate. He lost the job when he refused to remove the name of a Jewish librettist from a programme. He was also condemned for criticisms of the Nazi party. He was thereafter denounced by the Nazi party, and he was forced to make concessions and submit to their will in order to save his family.
Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings
Richard Strauss Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Richard Strauss:
4 Letzte Lieder TrV 296: No. 4 Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
4. Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Morgen Textdichter: John Henry Mackay (1864-1933) Sprache: deutsch …
Morgen! Textdichter: John Henry Mackay (1864-1933) Sprache: deutsch …
No. 4. Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier letzte Lieder AV 150: 4. Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier Letzte Lieder Four Last Songs: Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
vier letzte lieder trv 296: 1. frühling Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier letzte Lieder TrV 296: 1. Frühling Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier letzte Lieder TrV 296: 4. Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier Letzte Lieder Trv 296: Frühling Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier letzte Lieder: "Im Abendrot" Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
Vier Letzte Lieder: Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand Vom Wand…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Staffan Olofsson
This is a masterpiece in interpreting Metamorphosen for 23 strings. It will never become better than this.
UnshavenStatue
I think better is *possible*, but I don't think any other group in the world is capable of matching this
Zalba
Maybe there would if they wouldn’t be as focused standing up and playing by memory. That why they could have found all the original Legati.
Staffan Olofsson
Thank you all, I think I have said all I want to say about this music. But of course I am glad about other people liking this music.
Griffin Wahl
This should not be possible. The musicianship is beyond comprehension. I am left absolutely gutted after this performance. I hope this never is removed from here, or that there is a hard copy out there. This is not only the best performance of Metamorphosen, but it is the best performance of anything. If there were ever another Voyager project, this needs to be in there.
DrFaustus
Amen 🙏
Staffan Olofsson
We dont need a Voyager project, we just need to look at the place we were born on. Thank you for your fine words about this music. A totally agree with you.
Kenneth Dorter
Thank you for this. Listening to Metamorphosen has always been a deeply moving experience for me but this is far beyond any other performance I've ever heard. And what an experience it must have been for the performers..
Staffan Olofsson
Thank you Kenneth, for me is has also been an experiece beyond belief.
Érico Schmitt
H o l y s h i t this is so incredible! I had watched their recording of Verklaerte Nacht some 20 times already and only now I found this. Just perfect, I dream of taking part in a performance like this one. The long silence in the end gave me chills and I even clapped. All from memory and no shoes (yes I walk barefoot most of my time). Do they even play anything that is not perfect? Why did I take 5 years to find this video? Who is cutting onions?