Dreams and nightmares in the context of romanticism: in conjunction with Alexander von Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf (Der Zwerg) at Opéra de Lille, we present a few interesting post-romantic gems. Next to two slow movements — the splendid Improvisation from Richard Strauss’s Sonata for violin and the second movement of Zemlinsky’s Serenade —, we will also discover Gustav Mahler’s rare Piano Quartet, composed by the sixteen-year-old genius, who at the time was already inimitably himself.

But now the Modernists are getting involved, and the situation becomes tense: Alfred Schnittke prided himself on having written the second movement of Mahler’s work from sketches, and the listener finds himself caught up in an infernal Hitchcockian game... Wolfgang Rihm's trio at it's turn is inspired by the music of Robert Schumann and, at this point, the concert turns into a nightmare.