Polyphony and intensive motivic transformation play important roles in Rathaus' quartets. They are atonal although actual dodecaphony only appears in the fifth quartet the others flirt with tonal relations and feature intricate rhythmic play and the layering of the different voices in a Bartókian fashion. Rathaus' voice is that of expressionism and late Romanticism, transformed by the currents of the German avant-garde of the 10s and 20s and his third quartet, in particular, has a constant sense of unease, anxiety and mystery while the fourth is the most harmonically consolidated and friendly to the ear. Records International