After 3 years - the first year researching and deciding if I had the courage to attempt it, then 2 years arranging, producing and recording, I have at last finished my Digitiphonic version of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen.

Richard Strauss wrote Metamorphosen at the end of World War 2 as a lament for the destruction of the cultural life and architecture of Berlin - and everywhere else in Europe I guess too - so, even though I started it so long ago, with no idea of what would take place in Ukraine, it seems particularly relevant now, with the needless desecration of war once again tearing apart the fabric and architecture of Europe.. 

Originally Strauss meant Metamorphosen to be a Choral piece, but he changed it to a string piece when he was offered a commission for a strings only piece. So, in this version I have used the words, by Goethe, that he was planning to use. They are beautiful words - the English translation is as follows - 

"No one can really know himself, 
detach himself from his inner being 
Yet, each day he must put to the test, 
What is in the end, clear. 
What he is and what he was, 
what he can be and what he might be. 

But, what goes on in the world, 
No one really understands it rightly, 
and also up to the present day, 
no one desires to understand it. 
Conduct yourself with discernment. 
Just as the day offers itself; 
Think always: it's gone well up to now, 
so might it go until the end."

The final mix is currently with the talented mastering engineer Marcin Bociński in Warsaw. Hopefully it will be finished by early April, then released shortly after that.