Entering the graffiti-covered backstreet entrance of the old municipal market we might have been mistaken for the attendees of a sick warehouse rave were it not for the lack of boggle-eyed boisterousness and instead, a large presence of good quality sensible coats.

Moving deeper into a hangar beyond, there was plenty of pleasure to be found in happening upon a vast installation - hundreds of weighted pendulums hung from the rafters. As the 23 musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra arranged themselves under spotlights that somehow made the industrial space intimate, we marvelled at the polished and detailed craftsmanship of the string instruments.

Something of Metamorphosen’s fierce intensity can be captured in the fact that composer Richard Strauss chose not to attend its premiere in 1946, the assumed reason being that the work was so painfully personal that he was unable to bear the public aspect.

A vast elegy to the cultural destruction in Germany brought about by Nazism and military conflict, the extremity of Strauss’ emotions were brought to pass by musicians so profoundly skilled and impassioned it seems reasonable to believe that in the truest sense, the 25-minute performance offered us all excellent reason to be glad of music, and of life.