This concert presents three works of music which are seldom included in today’s programmes. Furthermore, these are pieces that show different kinds of affinities and contrasts among themselves and, in this way, create a tapestry of connections and dissimilarities that makes today’s concert very interesting. So, the temporal distance that separates Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from Francis Poulenc and Bohuslav Martinů seems shortened by the adherence of these last two composers to the postulates of neoclassicism in a very important part of their compositions and the unavoidable influence which Mozart exercised over those following this trend. Moreover, whereas Mozart’s and Martinů’s works display the composers in their full maturity as they develop works of great depth and ambition, Poulenc’s piece is a composition of modest dimensions that was composed when the French composer was not yet twenty years old. Finally, the concert begins with a work by Mozart for a string trio, continues with Poulenc’s duo for two clarinets and ends with a composition by Martinů that requires both of the two previous formations, thus creating a very unusual ensemble. This will no doubt intrigue people, which is what the Quantum Ensemble usually endeavours to do: how will Martinů manage to conjoin the dual presence of the clarinet sound, so versatile and potentially powerful, with the three instruments traditionally associated with the string trio?

Víctor Durà-Vilà