Ensemble Entrakt – Piano Quartet Concert

For this concert, the Ensemble Entrakt prepared a beautiful program centered around the expressive possibilities of the piano quartet.

We begin with Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A minor, a rare gem from the composer’s youth, filled with emotional intensity and glimpses of the dramatic voice that would later define his symphonic works.

This early Romantic spirit is then echoed—and reimagined—through Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Quartet. Inspired by and built upon Mahler’s fragment, Schnittke masterfully bridges time by blending Romantic lyricism with his own unmistakable 20th-century voice, creating a dialogue across the ages that is at once haunting and compelling.

The event's main piece, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47—a masterpiece of the chamber music repertoire - is a lyrical, exuberant, and deeply heartfelt work which showcases Schumann’s gift for melody and structural elegance, providing a rich and uplifting conclusion to the program.