Metamorphosen is a work that is not actually for a string orchestra at all! While the string orchestra is ordinarily comprised of five sections of players who play the same part as a group, Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen was composed for 23 solo players, each playing an individual part. This number of separate parts allows for a level of intricacy and a rich texture seldom achieved in music of any type, much less by a string ensemble. Metamorphosen is Strauss's effort to understand the incomprehensible death and destruction of World War II and to somehow forge a bridge to a better future for the German people and the world.
The second portion of the program brings us back across the ocean to the music of American composers. The NSS will perform Signs of Life, by Russell Peck, Alleluia and Fugue by Alan Hovhaness, John Corigliano's Voyage, and Michael Daugherty's Strut.