Many pieces with a classical cycle of movements lead to an examination of baroque counterpoint in the form of a fugue. Widmann's fifth string quartet, which closes his first cycle in this genre like a finale, wants to remain a deliberately tentative 'Versuch über die Fuge', through it's dialogue with the singing voice's quotation from the Bible: 'That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out? - Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas!'

Schott Music