In 1945, in despair over the German cities destroyed in the hail of bombs, Strauss wrote a mourning music, his Metamorphoses, which are as multi-layered as they are contemplative. Confessing to Viennese classicism, he incessantly transforms a motif from Beethoven's Eroica.
The young Brahms' first sextet, on the other hand, is a fortunate work. Inspired by the blooming Rhine Valley near Bonn in the spring of 1860, its freely swinging, broad melodies and symphonic echoes evoke feelings of elation.
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
