Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective: Transfigured

Linking in with this year’s Kafka centenary celebrations in Oxford, Kaleidoscope’s richly expressive programme explores themes of metamorphosis and transformation through two of the most thrilling chamber works in the repertoire.

Francesca Chiejina (soprano), Elena Urioste (violin), Savitri Grier (violin), Juan-Miguel Hernandez (viola), Edgar Francis (viola), Laura van der Heijden (cello), Tony Rymer (cello), Philip Nelson (Double Bass).

• Alexander Zemlinsky – Maiblumen blühten überall for soprano and string sextet
• Richard Strauss – Metamorphosen (arr. Rudolf Leopold for string septet)
• Interval
• Alma Mahler – Four Songs (arr. Tom Poster for soprano and string sextet)
• Arnold Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht for string sextet, Op. 4

Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht is an impassioned depiction of a couple whose lives are transfigured as they walk through the night, while Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen (in its string septet version) is a heart-rending reaction against the destruction of European culture and heritage in the Second World War.