Michael Jarrell

Echtzeit, real time, is the title of a programme of three string quartets recorded by the Asasello-Quartett. The quartet was founded in Basel in 2000, has been based in Cologne since 2005, and studied with Walter Levin and with the Alban Berg Quartet. Here it sets Zeitfragment by Michael Jarrell (born 1958) and Tempo strozzato of 1978 by Rolf Riehm (born 1937), each over twenty minutes long. They stand either side of the String Quartet No. 3 of 1988 by Conlon Nancarrow.

The recording was made in the Kammermusiksaal of Deutschlandfunk in Cologne on February 7 to 10, 2013, as a co-production with the broadcaster, with Frank Kämpfer as executive producer and Michael Silberhorn on sound. The players are violinists Rostislav Kozhevnikov and Barbara Kuster, violist Justyna Śliwa and cellist Wolfgang Zamastil. Jarrell's Zeitfragment, subtitled quatuor à cordes, opens the disc at twenty-two minutes. Nancarrow, who spent most of his life writing for player piano, wrote his third quartet for the Arditti Quartet. Its three short movements, marked A marc., B legato and C marc., last about twelve minutes. Riehm's Tempo strozzato, a strangled tempo, closes the programme at almost twenty-three minutes. The booklet carries an essay and cover artwork by Michael Growe, whose text gives the album its title.

CD on Genuin, catalogue number GEN 13292, released in 2013.