It was a world away from the gold-leafed extravagances of the Vienna Musikverein concert hall and its Strauss waltzes on New Year’s Day. For although the OSJ’s programme credited two pieces in the latest OSJ Prom to Johann Strauss II, the works were actually by Richard Strauss. And Strauss’s Metamorphosen, played here, evokes not the Musikverein but the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich – as it lay in ruins following an air raid in 1943.

In the OSJ’s performance under conductor John Lubbock, you could almost smell the smoking ruins, and the composer’s despair. For Strauss, the building’s destruction marked the end of the musical life he had known. Lubbock stuck almost exactly to Strauss’s specified size of orchestra (ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses), and drew beautifully expressive playing from the group. The contemplative opening, written for the lower strings, was enhanced by placing the cellos in a line at the front, and Lubbock was alert to every differing sound texture and dynamic subtlety in the score. This was a heartfelt and moving performance.

Strauss’s earlier Introduction to Capriccio was first performed privately and undercover in 1942 – the composer’s disgust with the Nazi leadership was no secret. Like Metamorphosen the work begins gently, but becomes distinctly dramatic as it develops. Lubbock and his players inhaled you into the music, with a seductive account of Strauss’s intertwining string textures.