Ulster Orchestra: Music for Good Friday

R.Strauss Metamorphosen

Haydn The Seven Last Words of Christ

CHRISTOPH ALTSTAEDT CONDUCTOR

SOLOISTS AND CHORUS OF NI OPERA

Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ is a deep, contemplative drama based on the events leading up to the crucifixion and the earthquake that marked the moment of Jesus’s death. The music pulls us into an ominous and unsettled world; a lament at the foot of the cross. Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen for strings is another lament, this time for the destruction wrought in Munich in World War II and the shattering of cultural life as the composer knew it. Full of loss and anguish – but also serenity and majesty – this is music for meditation and reflection this Good Friday.