Valery Gergiev conducts Strauss' Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings, a contrapuntal masterpiece composed in the closing months of the Second World War that meditates on pain and transformation. From the same time period comes Stravinsky's Concerto in D for string orchestra, commissioned in 1946 by Paul Sacher for the 20th anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. The neoclassical elements of the Concerto in D's second movement introduce well the evening's final work, Stravinsky's neoclassical Violin Concerto in D Major. Kristóf Baráti takes the stage to perform a piece originally written for Polish violinist Samuel Dushkin, with whom Stravinsky closely collaborated over the course of the concerto's composition.