“I write my music with my nerve endings, not with a pen,” the composer declared. Written in 1977 - Rihm was then just 25 years old - his Musik für drei Streicher, (music for three stringed instruments) is the first masterpiece from a precociously mature artist. At turns electric and hieratic, this long piece of 55 minutes, in seven movements, irresistibly evokes the metaphor of rock and minerals merging with lava. “I have a vision of a great block of music inside me. In order to see who I am, I must cut into my own flesh, open myself up, and ask the mirror what it sees,” writes Wolfgang Rihm.

George van Dam violin
Jeroen Robbrecht viola
Geert De Bièvre cello

Wolfgang Rihm (1952-)
Musik für drei Streicher (1977)