Sikorski
The 2nd string quartet with the evocative title ‘Inscriptions’ was written in 2003 for the Auryn Quartet. The composer says that inscriptions are associated with farewells and death, that they can literally be carved as if on a gravestone, and this is expressed in the dynamics. The piece begins very quietly. And it is intended as a kind of ‘inscription’ for Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, whom Arnecke deeply admired and whose 200th birthday was commemorated in the year it was composed. ‘What is hidden, however, demands an explanation,’ Arnecke continues. "A
piece in the Mendelssohn cycle: I spontaneously had the idea of not only bowing musically to Felix, but also to Fanny. And so my 18-minute ‘Inscriptions’ touch on Felix's String Quartet in E flat major op. 12 (1829) and Fanny's quartet from 1834 in the same way; the latter is in the same key and has many references - a real “sister work”."
He had only laid traces, the quotations were woven into his music. Only two bars are taken completely in four parts from the quartets, one bar from Felix and one bar from Fanny - they are placed directly next to each other in a central position. ‘The quotations remain in the background: they are there, they even trigger the processes of the piece, but they work in secret.’