Philharmonia Orchestra: Metamorphosen

After a very full evening concert in the Dome, the strings of the Philharmonia Orchestra braved threatening rain to get over to the derelict Circus Street Market to mark the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss. Earlier, during their rehearsal of Strauss’s extended lament for the collapse of German culture under Nazism and war, torrential rain had flooded the audience space and the event was very nearly called off. The un-metronomic drips of the leaking roof added an extra eerie chill, as did William Forsythe’s installation of choreographic pendulums. It was a sober, intensely beautiful conclusion to the Festival’s classical programme.

Circus Street Market, 24 May 2014

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