In the gentle glow of moonlight, a woman confesses to her new lover that she’s pregnant with another man’s baby, having experimented with her sensuality before their meeting. The lover is remarkably forgiving: out of love for her, he will raise the child as his own. Moved by the modernity and metaphysical power of Richard Dehmel’s poem, Arnold Schönberg set it to music in Transfigured Night. A century later, composer Patricia Alessandrini elected to explore the role of this generous man who ‘absolves’ the woman of her supposed transgression. Her reinterpretation of the romantic score endows both sexes with the power to transfigure.

Feminine desire, though condemned by society for centuries, has consistently fascinated artists, like Claude Debussy, who liked to embody through his music the imagined sensuality of women living an ‘exotic’ life. His celebrated String Quartet in G minor completes the Tana Quartet’s programme. One of the internationally recognised quartet’s strengths — their ability to foster dialogue between different works and periods to reveal new resonances — is on clear display in this performance.