Composer: Beat Furrer
Performer: Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Kairos
Catalogue: KAI0013132
Release: 2010
Size: 166 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Streichquartett No. 3
01. Takte 1-98
02. Takte 99-234
03. Takte 235-360
04. Takte 361-499
05. Takte 500-679
06. Takte 680-756
Furrer bases his third string quartet on three characteristic, contrasting structures. Each one of these structures is designed to have continuations, variations which are consummated in a development section. These developments, in turn, are mounted and overlapped over the course of the quartet. Beat Furrer enjoys a strong following in the UK.
Swiss composer Beat Furrer (born 1954) is a stalwart proponent of European modernism, both as a composer and a conductor. He is the founder of Klangforum Wein, one of the most accomplished European new music ensembles, and he has produced a large body of work in a variety of genres, from chamber music to large-scale music theater works. His Third String Quartet is uncompromising in its demands on performers and listeners. In the program notes, Marie Luise Maintz aptly describes the work’s opening as “a state of paralysis; toneless grinding, individual hard and high notes, dry, dripping, knocking, vibrating — isolated sounds occurring in a seemingly random way.” The quartet ultimately gathers momentum and generates a sense of forward movement, but the vocabulary of sparse and ghostly sounds that Maintz describes applies, for the most part, to the whole work. An exception is the gradual introduction, finally audible in fragments at the end of the quartet, of a 1542 Protestant chorale in G major, based on a text from Psalm 22, “You hear me not; at night I find no peace, for you conceal, as much as it pains me, your countenance.” The quote certainly captures the bleak nihilism that characterizes the piece. Written in a single movement, the quartet receives a committed performance from members of the new music ensemble KNM Berlin. Kairos’ sound is immaculately clean, detailed, and vibrant.