Death and the Maiden

This piece started out as an ostinato, a slow and persistent phrase as unrelenting as death with an unsettling obsessive quality. Eight years later, Schubert developed it into a theme and variations that, if he had written nothing but, would have confirmed his reputation as a musical genius. Two centuries later, the quartet has inspired Catalan composer Arnau Gran i Romero to put his own personal stamp on this multifaceted theme.