Nachtbild mit Wetterleuchten / Night Image with Sheet Lightning (2025). Jüri Reinvere: “After the two-hour giant cycle Four Quartets, which premiered last year with the Minguet Quartet, it is a great pleasure for me to also write for string quartet in a smaller form. Especially so, as the piece will be premiered in Wiesbaden by the Arditti Quartet. Nachtbild mit Wetterleuchten continues my cycle of nocturnes for various ensembles and perceives this time of day as something more than just an idyll or a phase of rest.”

*

Anna-Margret Noorhani: “Three Pieces for String Quartet (2026, premiere) is a triptych that uses contemporary industrial processes as metaphor, tracing a trajectory from origin through acceleration to breakdown. The music translates mechanical logic and economic pressure into sound—moving from physical resistance and raw force into relentless, tightly wound motion, where systems strive for perfect coordination yet remain fragile, always dependent on every part working in uneasy synchrony. What follows is the aftermath: familiar materials return warped or eroded, gestures falter, and momentum leaks away. A structure built for maximum output begins to reveal error, fatigue, and quiet refusal, closing the cycle not with resolution, but with ambiguity.”

*

Vestige (2026, premiere) for string quartet. Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes: “Vestige refers to remnants, a visible or barely perceptible trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists; a hint of something’s former existence.

*

Whatevergirl for string quartet (2026, premiere). Gregor Kulla: “Broadly speaking, the work deals with transformations, because we are currently in a time of transformation. There is always a time of transformation, although this often slips from our minds. A clear example is what is happening in our society. It feels as if the freest country in the world is ruled by such a foolish man that it is honestly hard to believe. In other free nations, similar men are raising their heads like weeds after a rain. People are being discarded, internet browsing is being tied to personal IDs, and many democratic states now essentially mandate mass surveillance. The richest person on the planet has given what appears to be a Nazi-style salute. The President of Estonia has hosted the President of Israel, whose administration the International Association of Genocide Scholars has described as committing genocide. The United Kingdom and Australia restrict young people’s access to information, placing them under the control of foolish authorities. All of this happens in the name of public attention and, consequently, revenue, because fear and shame run deeper than the heart. I want to move past all of this quickly—swiftly, urgently. I want it to be reshaped. The title comes from the so-called “internet language”, used mainly by people who are aware of the mess I have described and, for the most part, oppose it. At the same time, it expresses my indifference and a kind of protection against that foolishness. Otherwise, it is easy to fall under the influence of the profit-driven rich. Who has not been made angry by stories that include the words “pedophile”, “transsexual”, “blacks”, “child-safety”? This so-called saved effort lies beneath me to keep my mind from wilting—only with it is there any hope of arriving somewhere, someday.

The work emerged through a process of so-called translation. It is grounded in Julio Estrada’s discontinuum-continuum theory and also refers to Horațiu Rădulescu’s Fifth String Quartet, before the universe was born, Op. 89 (1993). It began with a large collection of lines that I captured, using found objects, in a collage in order to distinguish different movements (lines) and textures. Then I “translated” this collage into a scheme or blueprint, arranging the selected movements horizontally. Several drawings followed, created to explore suitable combinations of motion (lines). From these drawings, I compiled a set of string-instrument techniques that approximated the desired movements and sounds. Then I began writing the first score, attempting to capture what had previously eluded me. After testing this first score with string players, I produced a few additional sketches and subsequently proceeded to the final score.”