Illuminations: A Night of Musical Transfiguration

Join us for an extraordinary evening of chamber music that explores profound emotional landscapes. The program promises a transformative musical journey, with Schoenberg's luminous Verklärte Nacht at its heart, accompanied by compelling compositions by female composers, Anna Berg and Inger Thommesen, that challenge and expand the musical imagination.

The string trio Earthward, Ever Circling (2023) is the first piece in a series where composer, Anna Berg, explores how funeral music is used as a means of communication between living and dead, between the present and eternity. This is reflected in the way the phrases move through different registers. They reach down towards the earthly and up towards the divine and eternal. The music constantly alternates between these stages. Like the soul's possible movements to its next life, the different elements in the music have different speed and weight, some parts swirling more hectically, while others parts are more static, waiting.’

‘Irrgarten’ (2024) by violist and composer, Inger Thommesen, is a composition inspired by the hedge maze, where the performers shape the piece whilst choosing their own path through the music.

Verklärte Nacht’ (Transfigured Night) is a stunning late Romantic chamber work by Arnold Schoenberg, composed in 1899. Originally written as a string sextet, it's a deeply emotional piece based on a poem by Richard Dehmel that tells a powerful story of transformation, forgiveness, and transcendence. 

Performed by:

Valerie Gahl (violin)

Daniel Goldin (violin)

Inger Thommesen (viola)

Andreas Grimstad (viola)

Artturi Aalto (cello)

Sophie Kauer (cello)