METAMORPHOSES

The cycle of the six so-called Paris symphonies represents the first pinnacle of achievement in Joseph Haydn’s oeuvre and, together with the last Mozart symphonies, also the peak of the genre in terms of form, composition and musical content. One of three conductors to have recorded and issued all 107 Haydn symphonies, last year Dennis Russell Davies undertook to perform the whole Paris symphonies cycle with his Filharmonie Brno. Following Symphony No. 83, in the upcoming season we can look forward to Symphony No. 87.

During his stay in Vienna (1802–1808), Anton Reicha often visited Joseph Haydn, who became his musical role model. Reicha’s Piano Concerto in E-flat major, written in Vienna, thus carries a distinct impression of Haydn’s style, but also hints at the Romantic period to come.

One of Richard Strauss’s last major works, Metamorphosen was written shortly before the end of WWII as an elegy in which this paramount representative of late Romanticism expressed not just his devastation over the loss of irreplaceable cultural values, but also his belief in the beauty of our world. A powerful testimony by the 80-year-old composer, the piece quotes or echoes music by Beethoven, Wagner and Strauss himself.