Metamorphosen, study for 23 solo strings (TrV 290, AV 142) is a composition by
Richard Strauss, scored for ten
violins, five
violas, five
cellos, and three
double basses, of approximately 26 minutes in duration. It was composed during the closing months of the
Second World War, from August 1944 to March 1945. The piece was commissioned by
Paul Sacher, the founder and director of the
Basler Kammerorchester and Collegium Musicum Zürich, to whom Strauss dedicated it. It was first performed in January 1946 by Sacher and the Collegium Musicum Zürich, with Strauss conducting the final rehearsal . In 1996, Rudolf Leopold wrote a version for Septet .