String Quartet No. 2 was completed in 2014, some half a century after the Quartet No.1. It started as a sketch for a proposed urgent commission of a string trio. The deadline was too tight, another work was performed instead, and the trio – with unfairly busy middle (viola) part – eventually grew into a quartet. The requested underlying theme of “looking back and going forward” is seen in the recurrent recasting of ancient-sounding material into modern settings in the first movement, reflective and pensive choral-like mood of the second movement, and the somewhat audacious forward-driving frolics of the last movement. Also obvious is the fact that the entire work is tightly woven around the opening statement, which after only four notes simply reverses itself and retraces the steps back to the beginning.