In 1999 Wolfgang Rihm wrote his piece Fetzen I, which he describes as “part excerpt", also "something incomplete". Fetzen - played by Teodoro Anzellotti - becomes an integral part of Rihm's twelfth string quartet in one movement (2000/2001).

The material first appears unchanged in the quartet and is later interspersed throughout the new sound material. And Rihm goes another step further transferring the whole string quartet into a third piece: Interscriptum (2000/2002), a quintet, which Rihm ironically describes as a duo for string quartet and piano.

Rihm's ‘recycling technique’ is not only characteristic of his style, but an expression of the composer's creative thinking. Combining and intertwining existing music becomes a concept: the piece itself is the search for the piece.

Recorded at Klaus-von Bismarck-Saal, Funkhaus Köln, 24-26/6/2009.