'I have composed this Adagio for string quintet at the request of my friend Walter Grimmer; it should be played in concert before the great string quintet in C by Schubert. What a story! What kind of hillock have I created next to the Himalaya of chamber music? Well, I have written a type of music with which I have striven to stay true to my own self. And yet the piece begins with Schuberts closing trills for the two cellos and repeatedly a C major chord pops up, mostly delicately, but just once entirely explicitly. And as a reference to the Adagio from the great Austrian, Ive given the second cello some repeated pizzicati to play. And as a gift for my friend who gave me this commission: a short cadenza from the second cello, followed by a coda in which both violins repeat the opening pizzicati two octaves higher. And the piece ends with a long deep C note, which should serve to introduce the beginning of the Schubert. And now you enter into a totally different dimension…'