Mauricio Kagel, Tristan Keuris

Mauricio Kagel String Quartet no. 4
From the very first moment, the elegantly light-footed line shared between the two violins accompanied by brusquely double-stopped chords in the viola and cello, the rustic tone in the work is unmistakable. Immediately one is captured: when have we last heard this peculiar colour? Yet it seems entirely fresh and unaffected, without the mawkish nostalgia of those who would like nothing more than to return to a golden age that never was, but likewise without any irony or parody, this all-purpose distancing device of postmodernist aesthetics that allows composers to, with an elegant or not-so elegant sleight-of-hand, renounce all responsibility for what they have written.
Lagos Ensemble