Transformed Lives by Webern, Strauss, Mahler, Schoenberg, Arnold, Alates (2024/2024), Dirigent Alexandra Wood, Southwark Cathedral, London, United Kingdom

Join us for a programme of heavenly music inspired by lifechanging moments in the lives of the featured composers, in the stunning surroundings of Southwark Cathedral. We start the evening with Webern’s Slow Movement, an emotionally charged piece which was inspired by a hiking holiday outside of Vienna with Webern’s future wife. This stands in stark opposition to Strauss’ oboe concert, written after World War II when Strauss met an American veteran soldier who in civilian life was a principal oboist for the Pittsburgh Symphony. The programme also includes Mahler’s hauntingly beautiful ‘Adagietto’ from his symphony No.5, which the composer sent to his future wife Alma instead of a love letter. The couple was engaged a month later and married within the year. The evening culminates with Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, in which a woman tells her partner that she is pregnant with another man’s child. Criticized at the time of publication for its content, which stood in stark contrast to Viennese morals, both the poem and the piece are now celebrated works of art. Be transformed by some of the best tunes in classical music and enjoy a relaxing evening against the beautiful backdrop of Southwark Cathedral.