Transfigurations

Schoenberg's famous Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem in which a woman announces to her companion that she is pregnant by another man, is presented here in it's version for piano trio by Eduard Steuermann: 'This brilliant pianist, the creator of many of Schoenberg's pieces, brings the story to life by entrusting the dialogue between the man and the woman to cello and violin alone', says Thomas Dieltjens, pianist of the group Het Collectief. Anton Webern made a transcription of Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie Op.9 in 1923 for the same forces as Pierrot Lunaire. This miniature orchestra, consisting of just two wind instruments (flute, clarinet), two string instruments (violin, cello) and a piano, 'preserves great clarity in the polyphonic line'. Het Collectif asked the young composer Tim Mulleman to transcribe for the same ensemble the Piano Sonata Op.1 of Alban Berg, who himself made arrangements of some of his own works, including the famous Adagio from his Kammerkonzert, also presented in this programme.