Metamorphosen

Every festival must have a truly memorable and unmissable moment, and this year we were treated to many that in lesser programmes would reach that accolade. But this year, for me, it had to be this extraordinarily moving performance of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen. The string section of the Philharmonic beat an early retreat from their Dome concert to set up in the old municipal market. Here amongst the gently swinging pendulums and against a backdrop of decaying architecture and corrugated iron, they gave a quite astonishingly moving performance; the subtle complexities of the piece pervading, or perhaps invading, every corner of not only the building but of our persons. The eerie atmosphere, the water dripping from the leaking roof, the chill in the air … all made this my stand-out event of the whole festival. It left me almost speechless and not wanting to hear anything else for quite some time.

Circus Street Market, 24 May 2014

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