Wolfgang Rihm's challenging music is notoriously difficult to define or categorize, not only when his works are considered as an oeuvre or taken separately, but even within the parameters of one piece. Take his violent String Quartet No. 5, "Ohne Titel," which seems on one level to be a perpetual motion machine, drilling on rapidly repeated pitches and driving forward through its four movements with relentless energy toward its mysterious fadeout. That is one possibility, but it may also be regarded as a highly focused study of raw string sonorities, or a tour de force of expressionist angst and fury, or merely the logical and ultimate development of a single-germ motive. Since
Rihm's subtitle pointedly discloses nothing, his intentions are anybody's guess. The more varied String Quartet No. 6, "Blaubuch," seems easier to fathom; even though it is much longer than the previous quartet and requires more sitzfleish of the listener, its very expansiveness and changeability make it less dense and more accessible. However,
Rihm's restless music still resists pat descriptions or any single meaning. The
Minguet Quartett displays phenomenal endurance and brilliant technique in these daunting quartets, and Col Legno's recording reproduces its heroic efforts faithfully, with great resonance and presence.