NOSPR Chamber Musicians / Return, Beautiful World - NOSPR

In 1824, Franz Schubert was 27 years old and, like many at that age, found himself mourning the loss of youth. The two quartets he composed in that year are dark masterpieces. The melancholy String Quartet in A minor, known as Rosamunde, takes its title from a theatrical play for which Schubert had composed incidental music. Yet the true key to the work lies in the minuet, where the composer quotes his own song Die Götter Griechenlands (The Gods of Greece), set to a poem by Friedrich Schiller. It is specifically the passage with the words ‘Schöne Welt, wo bist du?’ (‘Beautiful world, where are you?’). To this, he responds with the phrase ‘Kehre wieder’ (‘Return’). 

Metamorphoses carries with it a melancholy air, a valediction to the old world where Richard Strauss had once shone with unrivalled brilliance. In 1945, the concert halls of his triumphs were reduced to rubble. Written for a small string orchestra (and performed here in the version for septet), it is both a reflection on a life and a private confession, music that seems to exist outside of time and current style. 

Adam Suprynowicz

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes