String Quartet No. 2 (Ligeti)

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti published three string quartets throughout his life - 2 string quartets proper (1953-54, 1968), and a student piece from 1950 published towards the end of Ligeti's life. The first two string quartets proper represent both his early period, inspired by Béla Bartók, and middle period, which was largely micropolyphonic. In 2012, sketches and notes for his projected String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4 were discovered by Bianca Ţiplea Temeș at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and they would represent Ligeti's late period.

These two movements were written for the graduation exam at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, with a stylistic uncertainty. The piece was premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 1994 at the Salzburg Festival. The movements are about 13 minutes in total duration.

György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1, titled Métamorphoses nocturnes, was composed in 1953–54. It is thus representative of what the composer himself used to call "the prehistoric Ligeti", referring to the works he wrote before leaving Hungary in 1956. Ligeti was heavily inspired to write this quartet by Bartók's third and fourth quartets, so much so that it was even called "Bartók's seventh string quartet" by fellow Hungarian composer György Kurtág. Even if Ligeti only knew these works only from their scores, performances of them being banned under communist regimes at the time. The quartet is approximately 21 minutes in duration, and was premiered at the Vienna Musikverein on 8 May 1958 by the Ramor Quartet, an ensemble that had also fled into exile.

The work is written in one continuous movement, which can be divided into seventeen contrasting sections:

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