Wolfgang Rihm's impressive piece Et Lux for string quartet and vocal ensemble is beautifully interpreted by the Belgian Huelgas Ensemble together with the German Minguet Quartet, which has collaborated extensively with the composer. Composed in 2009, the work seems to originate from a bygone era and considers the musical techniques that contributed to its creation, including the ritual of the Requiem: "What we have is not music that is remembered, but music that remembers itself." In Et Lux, fragments of text from the Latin Requiem Mass appear as elements of a gradually developing whole. The repeated appearance of certain phrases is particularly significant, for example, "et lux perpetua luceat" (and let perpetual light shine upon them). The comforting yet unsettling meaning of these words can be felt through cyclical reflection. At the premiere, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the interwoven linguistic and musical elements of the work. The recording took place in Antwerp in February 2014. The accompanying booklet contains an introduction by Wolfgang Rihm as well as texts by Paul Griffiths and Wolfgang Schreiber.
