This concert presents a fascinating juxtaposition between the works of Richard Strauss and Béla Bartók. The latter initially embraced the music of the older German composer with enthusiasm before quite quickly turning toward a more critical view.

Dominating the first half of this evening’s performance will be the themes of transformation and metamorphosis. After all, the then-elderly Strauss’s music lamenting the destruction of World War II may bring to mind both the concept of metamorphosis not only with its Goethe-inspired title, but also with the transformative character of its melodies and melodic fragments as they die and are reborn. Bartók’s 1930 work Cantata Profana relates a story of how nine boys were transformed into stags, also delving into this profound and multifaceted concept.

In the second part of the evening, we will hear another Strauss masterpiece and one by Bartók, both amongst the most popular of their oeuvres. Bartók was gravely ill when he composed his Piano Concerto No. 3, dedicated to Ditta Pásztory, and left the last 17 bars to be arranged by others.

The piece will now be interpreted, nobly as always, by Dénes Várjon, while the suite Strauss crafted from the historicising – yet with a postmodern flair – and irresistibly clever waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier will be performed by Concerto Budapest, here conducted by András Keller. Some orchestral fun that is just as rewarding as it is demanding.