Compositions

Cinq tableaux sur Schubert (1996) 22′
Guit/2 V/Va/Vc 5 movements
Premiere1999 Berlin Wulfin Lieske, Vilnius Quartett​

The quintet for guitar and string quartet is wholly developed from the theme of the slow movement from Schubert’s D minor string quartet "Death and the Maiden".
In five "tableaux" different approaches to sections of the variations are accomplished. In some places the original is glimpsed as the musical process finds its way to Schubert.
Like Japanese ink drawings, every movement begins with a static virtual vacuum, only gaining momentum shortly before the end, the tranquil music then explodes as it were, unlocking the Schubert material.
Yet the work is not based on quotations, nor is it composed "in the style of…". Rather it picks up on moods, archetypical characteristics of Schubert’s music, in form for instance of dactylic rhythms, the tension of sustained tones or a popular boisterous pizzicato.
The guitar (with C# G d g bb e scordatura) forms an antithesis to the quartet, assuming in a way the role of mentor: guiding the quartet to Schubert. The guitar begins the sections by defining the characteristic mood of the movement, thereby challenging the strings to respond in a different manner.
This may lead to canonical harmony or provoke the development of a counter world.
The fifth tableau, for instance, is opened by the guitar, played with a cello bow, in a flageolet open string chord, followed by a 11/8 ostinato cross-rhythm ("The Grim Reaper") through which the quartet, after a highly expressive dramatic outburst of emotion, finds its way back to the unison of the first movement and from Schubert’s dactylic primal rhythm in (false) flageolet to the chords of the original theme.
It is seconded by a pseudo guitar improvisation (in space notation) on the cello cantilena of the third variation of the original. In the coda of the final variation, they join in a more or less authentic quintet for a time after some irritation by a mismatch of pitches.
While the strings remain loyal to the original G major finale, the guitar becomes increasingly independent in its adoption of the 11/8 "Grim Reaper" pace, in turn leading into Schubert's theme in G Minor.
Beginning and end, G minor/G major unite.