Norfolk Symphony Orchestra

Strauss began the composition of Death and Transfiguration in 1888, conducting the first performance in 1890. In a letter four years later, he explained the idea behind the work. “It was six years ago that it occurred to me to present in the form of a tone poem the dying hours of a man who had striven towards the highest idealistic aims, maybe indeed those of an artist. The sick man lies in bed, asleep, with heavy irregular breathing; friendly dreams conjure a smile on the features of the deeply suffering man; he wakes up; he is once more wracked with horrible agonies, his limbs shake with fever; as the attack passes and the pain leaves off, his thoughts wander through his past life; his childhood passes before him, the time of his youth with its strivings and passions and then, as the pains already begin to return, there appears to him the fruit of his life’s path, the conception, the ideal which he has sought to realise, to present artistically, but which he has not been able to complete, since it is not for the man to be able to accomplish such things. The hour of death approaches, the soul leaves the body in order to find, gloriously achieved in ever lasting space, those things which could not be fulfilled here below.”

Although the symphonic poems of Liszt were similar in concept, Strauss went further than the earlier composer in following a specific programme. Indeed he asked composer and violinist, Alexander Ritter, to provide a poem describing the action of the music: this was included in the programme for the first performances and then elaborated in a second version for inclusion in published scores. The theme of the suffering artist may reflect an autobiographical element that can be detected in many of Strauss’ tone poems and the motif from Death and Transfiguration which represents the “ideal of the artist” was quoted by the composer in one of the Four Last Songs. The music opens with a slow introduction illustrating the breathing and sighs of a dying artist, before an Allegro (lively) section marks a violent turn, illustrating the sufferings of the man. After the first climax, the music becomes defiant, leading to a panting second theme. The man appears to be losing the struggle for life until a theme depicting the ideal of the artist heralds a tableau in which the protagonist casts his thoughts over the various periods of his life. The man again tries to recall his memories but he seems to be increasingly overtaken by suffering. After three more appearances of the “ideal” theme, our hero is left breathing his last.The music slithers upwards to the moment of death. A wonderful apotheosis of the soul after death follows, bringing the work to a glorious close.