Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. St Peter’s Cathedral. 19 Sep 2025
Remember is the second and final concert in the current Sacred and Profane series presented by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. It was held in St Peter’s Cathedral and included Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, and Requiem, K.626, by W. Mozart (completed by F. Süssmayr).
The juxtaposition of the words ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ is interesting, and there is almost an implication that the musical composition that is tagged ‘profane’ (in this case the Strauss) is in some way irreverent or disrespectful. Nothing could be further than the truth – in this instance, Metamorphosen is simply secular, or not related to religion. Having said that, the emotion that slowly boils over in Metamorphosen is an almost spiritual experience in itself. As one young concertgoer remarked to me after it was finished, it is almost a meditative experience where one doesn’t really care about the composition’s provenance. It just ‘gets to you’, and listening to it in the magnificence and sublime acoustics of St Peter’s Cathedral amplifies these feelings. Indeed, as the final notes faded away, the audience barely moved and didn’t’ start to applaud for a full ten seconds. We had been transported to another place, and it took time to return to the ‘here and now’.
Pairing Strauss’ Metamorphosen with Mozart’s Requiem creates a profoundly affecting and emotionally rich concert experience, with both works exploring themes of loss, reflection, and the search for meaning – though in very different ways.
Strauss wrote Metamorphosen near the end of World War II, as Germany lay in ruins. It’s a work for 23 solo strings, unfolding as one continuous movement of sorrow and reflection. Strauss was mourning not only the destruction of his homeland but also the loss of an entire cultural world. The music is intimate and deeply personal, at times dark and brooding, at others tender and wistful. Its melodies unhurriedly develop and become the warp and weft of a rich musical tapestry.
By contrast, Mozart’s Requiem is intense and steeped in religious belief, even though Mozart leaned more to Freemasonry than he did to the Catholic Faith. Written in the final months of Mozart’s life, and left unfinished at his death—it is believed he was dictating the music to an assistant as he lay in his death bed—it carries an air of mystery. Requiem is a setting of the Catholic Mass for the Dead, and it is full of stark divergences: the calm of the “Lacrimosa” is contrasted with the potent emotion of the “Dies Irae”, the “Confutatis” and the “Lacrimosa”. (The 1984 multi-award-winning film Amadeus includes a powerful scene where the dying Mozart dictates fragments of the “Confutatis” as the music swells.) One cannot help being taken on a highly personal journey from a dark and foreboding place to feelings of hope and transcendence as one listens to Requiem.
The pairing of Metamorphosen and Requiem speaks to both the heart and soul, and the emotion of the concert is driven by the superb musicianship of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mark Wigglesworth, the Adelaide Chamber singers, and the soloists: soprano Madison Nonoa, mezzo-soprano Anne Dowsley, tenor Andrew Goodwin, and baritone Simon Measdow. To a person, they stamped their authority on the program, and Wigglesworth was very careful to set both tempi and dynamics to ensure the performance was sympathetic to the acoustics of the cathedral. It was all finely and expertly balanced.
This concert was a much-needed oasis of musical reflection to counter being overwhelmed by a troubled world.
Kym Clayton
When: 19 Sep
Where: St Peter’s Cathedral
Bookings: Closed
