Anam- The Up-bow Down-low

Episode 8, 2020: Strauss’s Metamorphosen Wednesday 5 August 2020 The position of Richard Strauss during the Second World War was truly tragic. Already an esteemed composer during his time, he was used by the Nazi Party as a validation of its program. His contrasting political view was compromised by his desire to protect his Jewish family members. The war ended when Strauss was about 80 years old. At this time, he was inconsolable because of his perceived destruction of the German culture brought by the war. Metamorphosen is a play on the word ‘metamorphosis’ whose classical meaning of ‘rebirth’ the great composer inverts to describe how German culture descended to bestiality, of ’man killing man’, through the course of the Second World War. Laura Barton (violin 2019) chats to Phil Lambert (ANAM Music Librarian) about conducting this masterpiece with ANAM Musicians during her final year at ANAM. For her, Metamorphosen is a complete overview of German culture as seen in Strauss’s perspective – the unbridled