Repertoire

Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen (1945) 28’
George Frideric Händel / Arnold Schönberg: Concerto for string quartet (1933) 20′
Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911; rev. 1947) 34′

ARTISTS

Stephanie Childress, conductor
Cuarteto Casals
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)

Programme

Artistic modernity cannot be reduced to a single current and the world of composition illustrates this. Together with his friend Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss was a highly influential composer, the author of pieces such as Metamorphosen for string orchestra. One of his late pieces, it is an unclassifiable and immortal work of secular spirituality.

Arnold Schönberg was keen to be seen not just as a revolutionary, but as continuing in the classical tradition. He adapted and transcribed classical works, one of which is the Concerto for String Quartet, written in 1933 and inspired by a Concerto Grosso by George Frideric Handel.

Traditional composition and radical creativity can be found in Igor Stravinsky’s Neoclassicism, which develops an iconic language for Diaghilev’s 1911 commission for the ballet Petrushka. The success of the piece exceeded that of The Firebird, a foretaste of the sensational reception of The Rite of Spring two years later.