Aldeburgh Strings and Winds - R. Strauss: Metamorphosen - The Guardian

Metamorphosen can make me seasick in the wrong hands. Written by an 85-year-old Richard Strauss in the months after the second world war, the relentless, swell and tug of the grief-thick harmonies need players who see past the next wave and steer through half an hour of stormy waters. And it really is up to every single player – Strauss wrote 23 solo string parts rather than clumping instruments together, and that makes the skill and judgment of the young Aldeburgh Strings, led by Markus Däunert, doubly impressive. Their sound is lithe and rich, their trajectory isn’t thrown off course by every squall and they coalesce into broad, gutsy gestures when they want to. It’s a sophisticated performance. Strauss’s late wind ensemble pieces get similarly intelligent treatment from Aldeburgh Winds under oboist Nicholas Daniel: charismatic individual voices, sturdy group textures and much thought and care shaping every phrase.