String Quartet 2

Manfred Trojahn was invited to the Villa Massimo in Rome in 1979/80 to work on his Second String Quartet, which had been commissioned by Radio France. What initially seemed like a golden opportunity for a young composer turned out to be a difficult period in Trojahn's life, and this was reflected in the quartet, which moves restlessly between emotional outbursts, stasis, brusqueness, and moments of almost tender lyricism. The work documents a young composer's search for an individual musical language in the early days of what we would now call the postmodern period. Manfred Trojahn was not interested in atonal dogma; the tonal relationships in his music reveal many sources of inspiration, including Romantic composers. "Hommage à L.v.B." is an ironic tribute to the Classical tradition, while in "Abgesang" [Farewell], Trojahn brings together diverse elements from earlier sections of the piece: restless fluttering motifs, elegiac cantilena passages, and bizarre clusters. To prepare this production of what is for him a very personal work, the composer worked closely with the Minguet Quartet, mezzo soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, and clarinetist Thorsten Johanns. The fruits of their efforts can be heard in this impressive recording.