The Quantum Ensemble presents in this programme three figures who, coming together in the Vienna of the end of the 19th- and beginning of the 20th-century, showcase wonderfully the creative exuberance that took place in that city at that time. The concert presents Transfigured Night, one of Schoenberg’s most popular works, in addition to two other compositions of great interest: the Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano by Alexander Zemlinsky and The Heavenly Life, a song for soprano and orchestra by Gustav Mahler that dates from the time of Mahler’s composition of the song cycle The Boy’s Magic Horn, but that ultimately became the fourth movement of his Symphony No 4. It is particularly noteworthy that, in their continued effort to expand their chamber repertoire, the Quantum Ensemble is performing two of these three compositions as arrangements that require only three musicians, therefore providing a different instrumental perspective and allowing a contrasting, and at the same time interesting, aural experience.

Víctor Durà-Vilà