Jade Quartett - Ernst Helmuth Flammer: String Quartets Nos. 4 & 5 (2017)

On this disc of World Premiere Recordings, composer Ernst Helmuth Flammer says of his compositions:

'As an artistic genre, film follows a dramaturgy based on the simultaneity of different plot levels and reflections. In the same way, this composition lives off the rapid paradigm shifts of different levels of musical time, and thus consciousness. Through these rapid shifts, all levels – I shall call them layers – always remain latently existent or even present, albeit sometimes in the background, barely perceptible or even completely remote. This results in a simultaneity of different temporal levels, temporal locations and temporal velocities extending to the ‘flow of time’, as well as the simultaneity of different states of being in keeping with B.A. Zimmermann’s ‘spherical time’.

Numerous compositions have been specially written for the Jade Quartet. Their career began with winning third prize at the 5th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2005, first prize at the German Music Academy Contest in 2004, and the Iris Marquart Prize. The Jade Quartet also received scholarships from the Villa Musica Foundation and the Karl Klingler Foundation. In 2005 its members were named ‘Musicians of the Year’ in the string quartet category owing to its competition success in Osaka.