Wolfgang Rihm - String Quartets, Vol. 4 (Minguet Quartet)

×

Wolfgang Rihm - String Quartets, Vol. 4 (Minguet Quartet)

Close

The Minguett Quartet recorded nearly the full cycle of Wolfgang Rihm's string quartets for Collegno, and it's a shame these discs are now out of print. The Minguett Quartet are Ulrich Isfort and Annette Reisinger (violins), Aroa Sorin (viola) and Matthias Diener (cello). On this volume of the cycle, we find three quartets from the 1990s and early millennium, a time when Rihm returned to the effusive expressionism that had first made him famous, after a few years of wispy, piannissimo music imitative of Nono and Lachenmann.

The String Quartet No. 1O (1993/97) is in three movements. The brief first movement sets out the theme, all four instruments playing in unison pizzicato, occasionally doubled or replaced by another of the instruments. In the second movement, that theme is subject to all manner of violence: it is articulated with sloppy rhythms and glissandi by some instruments, and constantly disputed by others playing Bartok pizzicatos. Towards the end of the movement, something like a folk song can be heard through the chaos – in fact, this is the Follia theme that has inspired composers for many centuries. The third movement is contemplative and pure, marked by slow tempo and harmonics.

The Minguett Quartet's survey passes over for the time being the String Quartet No. 11 (which wasn't published and premiered until fairly recently) and we have next the Twelfth (2001). This is in one movement, but the CD divides it into two tracks, with the second track starting from bar 106. While it starts with pizzicato, Rihm soon brings in music that had previously appeared in his work Jagden und Formen and a whole host of other pieces. In spite of Rihm's reuse of material (in a way that has often been compared to "overpainting" in the visual arts), the results are always fresh, and this string quartet is no exception. It's exciting to hear the four strings manage to play the same lines out of phase with each other, as this material demands.

(The Arditti Quartet has also recorded the Twelfth, on a disc featuring some other works based on this "Jagden und Formen" material as well. I haven't heard that yet, but I am pleased by the Minguett Quartet's performance.)

"Quartettstudie" (2004) is often nocturnal in mood and looks back to the Late Romantic tradition. Rihm has certainly mellowed in the new millennium, maintaining his interest in the tonal tradition but calming his music down to approach venerable old models like Mahler and Berg. While not up to the same standard as the other two quartets, it succeeds in its own way and might be the way into the disc for some listeners.

Christopher Culver @ Amazon.com