Death and the Maiden

Death is a floating and ominous presence in Schubert’s work. His lied Das Tod und der Mädchen (Death and the Maiden) takes a poem by the German Matthias Claudius based on a quite common theme in European art since the Renaissance: the personified image of death attacking, kidnapping, or threatening a young virginal-looking maiden. The main theme of this song was the seed material for one of the Viennese composer’s best-known string quartets. Schubert returned in 1820 to composing quartets, a genre he had not dedicated time to in many years, and the results were extraordinary.
Bernat Vivancos’ work, strongly influenced by the years at the Escolania de Montserrat, proposes a very particular connection with nature and sound, with the search for beauty, sensuality, and spirituality. We will hear the premiere, commissioned by L’Auditori, where he is a resident composer this year, of the work Ritual I for double string quartet, a unique and little explored template in the classical repertoire.