'BETWEEN WORLDS'

In Between Worlds, UNLTD traces a musical dialogue across two centuries — between Franz Schubert, who gave Death a voice of tenderness and humanity, and David Lang, who reimagines that same presence in the sound language of today.

The evening begins and ends with Death and the Maiden — first as Schubert’s haunting Lied and finally as his electrifying string quartet. Between these two encounters, the concert unfolds like a meditation on mortality, rebirth, and the passage of time.

Sandrine Piau, whose recent Schubert album delves into the composer’s luminous introspection, opens with Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden) and Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams), joined by Pedja Mužijević at the piano. Their dialogue of voice and sound sets a mood of stillness and compassion.

Lang’s death speaks follows: a contemporary song cycle stitched together from Schubert’s texts in which Death addresses the living. Originally written for Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) with Bryce Dessner (The National), Owen Pallett, and Nico Muhly, it blurs the borders between classical and indie music, written for amplified voice, piano, violin, and electric guitar.

For this Verbier premiere, Sandrine Piau, Pedja Mužijević, Jonathan Schwarz (Leonkoro Quartet), and Germain Umdenstock reveal Lang’s work as a luminous echo of Schubert’s vision. The Leonkoro Quartet, one of today’s most compelling young ensembles, then returns to the same encounter between life and death with Schubert’s string quartet of Death and the Maiden — closing the evening in a blaze of sound where the past and present seem to breathe together.