Monday at last – Day 1

Monday All Week is exactly what it sounds like: Monday At Last concerts every day, with tons of guests.

The picture of Death and the Maiden is famous. She is young and almost nude when death kisses her. Hans Grien’s painting was shocking during the Renaissance, but the motif has lived on and is portrayed in various ways in art and literature. In Matthias Claudius’ poem on the same theme, death tempts with appealing words: “Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form. I am a friend, and come not to punish.” Schubert used the text in one of his best known songs, “Der Tot und das Mädchen”, “Death and the Maiden” from 1817. He was then unable to let the theme go, and used it in his last string quartet, a piece charged with intensity and drama in which eager imitations contrast with dreamy, sensual sounds.

At this Monday All Week concert, the trio ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen is reinforced by the Cuarteto Quiroga and violinist Irina Simon-Renes, allowing them to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for String Octet: a Prelude and a Scherzo, composed when he was still a student. We will also hear British-Bulgarian Dobrinka Tabakova’s fascinating Insight, which produces concealed sounds from an accordion and brass flourishes from the trio.