Moeschinger: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 5 ‘Colloqui’; Trauermu

A maverick for his entire career, Albert Moeschinger was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Basel in 1953 and was considered ‘the most versatile and most imaginative among the creative personalities of more recent Swiss music’ by musicologist Hans Oesch. At first influenced by the works of Max Reger and Richard Strauss, Moeschinger’s music evolved from an expressive and differentiated harmonic language to atonality: inspired by Thomas Mann’s novel “Doctor Faustus,” Moeschinger adopted twelve-tone music, beginning in 1956. These three works illustrate Moeschinger’s impressive stylistic breadth. Each of the works is receiving here its world premiere recording.