With Jinjoo Cho, Min-Jeong Koh, Lynne Ramsey, Brannon Cho, and Max Geissler

PROGRAM:

R. Strauss/Leopold: Metamorphosen (septet)

Program notes:

Home is not always a place—it can be a person, a memory, or a moment of profound belonging. In Your Arms at Last explores the deep human longing to return to love and safety through music of devotion, intimacy, and transformation.

The evening culminates in Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen”, a profound meditation on loss, memory, and transformation written in the final months of World War II. Strauss’ sketches for the work included lines from Goethe’s poem “Widmung”, and when heard alongside Schumann’s “Widmung”, Strauss’ work gains an added dimension—suggesting a journey from the intimate devotion of love to a broader spiritual transformation. Together, these works trace a path from private tenderness to profound reflection, reminding us that home can be found both in the arms of the beloved and in the lifelong search for meaning.