The Arditti Quartet is a

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist

Irvine Arditti Irvine Arditti (born 8 February 1953) is a British violinist, as well as the leader and founder of the Arditti Quartet. Biography Arditti attended the Central Foundation Boys' School in London before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy ...

. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. They first became known taking into their repertoire technically challenging pieces. Over the years, there have been personnel changes but Irvine Arditti is still at the helm, leading the group. The repertoire of the group is mostly music from the last 50 years with a strong emphasis on living composers. Their aim from the beginning has been to collaborate with composers during the rehearsal process. However, unlike some other groups, it is loyal to music of a classical vein and avoids cross-genre music. The Quartet has performed in major concert halls and cultural festivals all over the world and has the longest discography of any group of its type. In 1999, it won the

Ernst von Siemens Music Prize The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (short: Siemens Music Prize, ) is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) on behalf of the (Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation), established ...

for lifetime achievement, being the first and only group to date to receive this award.

Repertoire

The Arditti Quartet is dedicated to 20th century and contemporary works, a niche in

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

where classical masters dominate. While they only play a handful of works from before the 20th century, they require that their repertoire maintains the tradition that has been established in Europe for several centuries. They do not work with composers from fields such as jazz, pop or

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

. They concentrate on those from the last fifty years, along with very new music, mostly repertoire specially written for the ensemble to premiere. The quartet is considered the authentic interpreters for many late 20th century composers, with a reputation for mastering the most difficult and complex compositions. They rarely improvise as their focus is on working with composers. These composers range from those active in the early 20th century to the present and include

Hans Abrahamsen Hans Abrahamsen (born 23 December 1952) is a Danish composer born in Kongens Lyngby near Copenhagen. His ''Let me tell you (Abrahamsen), Let me tell you'' (2013), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, was ranked by music critics at ''The Guard ...

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...

Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...

Pascal Dusapin Pascal Georges Dusapin (born 29 May 1955) is a French composer. His music is marked by its microtonality, tension, and energy. A pupil of Iannis Xenakis and Franco Donatoni and an admirer of Varèse, Dusapin studied at the University of Pari ...

Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer of late 20th-century classical music. Among the leading French composers of his time, his work was rooted in the Impressionistic style of Debussy and R ...

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

Georg Friedrich Haas Georg Friedrich Haas (born 16 August 1953) is an Austrian composer. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, pieces by Haas received the most votes (49), and his composition ''in vain'' (2000) topped the li ...

György Kurtág György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. According to ''Grove Music Online'', with a style that draws on " Bartók, Webern and, to a lesser extent, Stravinsky, his work is c ...

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanow ...

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent mus ...

Giacinto Scelsi Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (; 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988, sometimes cited as 8 August 1988) was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French. He is best known for having composed music based around only one pitch, ...

, and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

. They have on occasion performed minimalist pieces such as "

Mishima Mishima may refer to: Places * Mishima, Fukushima, a town in Fukushima Prefecture * Mishima, Kagoshima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture * Mishima, Niigata, a town in Niigata Prefecture * Mishima, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japa ...

" by

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

and the 1st quartet of

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...

which was written for them. Also works involving electronics are in their repertoire. York Holler's ''Antiphon'',

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; 14 October 1952 – 2 June 2023) was a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the En ...

's Nymphea and

Roger Reynolds Roger Lee Reynolds (born July 18, 1934) is an American composer. He is known for his capacity to integrate diverse ideas and resources, and for the seamless blending of traditional musical sounds with those newly enabled by technology. Beyond com ...

Ariadne's Thread. In their first concert they played new compositions only, but by their second year, they decided that their repertoire needed to include works of the

Second Viennese School The Second Viennese School () was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was initially characterized by late ...

and Bartók came soon after. Works from earlier in the 20th century as perspective followed and in the 1980s they incorporated

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's Grosse Fuge. They have played Ligeti's Second Quartet and Xenakis 'Tetras' hundreds of times. The focus on new music is to have the ability to collaborate with the composer in the interpretation of the piece, something the group considers very important, both in how to play and the fact that they consider their work as a kind of service to composers, especially younger, and the lesser-known. Composers often make minor adjustments to their compositions after working with the quartet. Norwegian composer calls the group the "Rolls-Royce" of quartets, in part because he does not have to explain how to play his music to them. They just know. In the past they have been compared to the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

but unlike them are not interested in crossover audiences or cross-genre pieces, but rather stick with the classical quartet form. There are very few pieces common to both groups.

History

The Quartet was founded in 1974 by

with

Levine Andrade Levine Andrade (1954 – 20 November 2018) was an Indian-born British musician (violin and viola), and conductor. Early life Levine was born in Bombay to his parents Bonaventure and Juliana, and emigrated to England. Following a scholarship to ...

, Lennox Mackenzie and John Senter while all were students at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

. They modeled themselves on the La Salle Quartet of the United States, focused at first on the LaSalle repertoire, with the aim of supporting composers, playing the pieces as they want them played. Very soon the size of their repertoire went far beyond what the LaSalle achieved or in fact any other group in the history of classical music. Arditti was born in London in 1953, and began his studies in violin and composition at the Royal Academy at the age of sixteen. Arditti won prizes for violin and composition, but decided he was a better violinist and stopped composing. The focus of the quartet on new music is due to Arditti's interest in it, which began with composing in his childhood and hearing music by

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, Ligeti and others of the avant garde of the 1960s. It was later that Ardittí became aware of the work of the LaSalle Quartet. In his last year at the Royal Academy of Music the Quartet was founded, and it continued during the time he was in the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

from 1976 to 1980, after which he left the Orchestra in order to dedicate himself full-time to the quartet. The Quartet's first concert was in March 1974, with the works of

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...

, who was at the Royal Academy to receive an honorary degree. This gave the group a chance to collaborate with the composer, something they continue to do with composers ever since. The quartet was named after Arditti because they needed a name in 24 hours, so they used his with the idea that it would be temporary, but the name stuck. In their early years, before the end of the 1970s, the ensemble performed and recorded all the quartets of

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

and Gyorgy Ligeti. They also began performing live on BBC. They commissioned their first piece in 1977, Jonathan Harvey's String Quartet No. 1. The group continued to have success touring and recording in Europe but it was not until the success of Kronos Quartet that the ensemble came to the attention of US and Canadian audiences, with a tour in the late 1980s. The founder, Irvine Arditti, is the only member who has played throughout the entirety of the quartet's existence, stretching over more than four decades. For the 40th anniversary of the quartet in 2014, one of the celebrations in London included a three-concert-in-one-day event, with works by fifteen different composers with whom their leader Arditti has been particularly closely associated, as well as the world premiere or several new works.

Recognition

The Quartet has a worldwide reputation as a leader for its interpretation of 20th century and contemporary new music, receiving extensive critical praise. They have been noted for their "...astonishing virtuosity and their willingness to extend the boundaries of what can be expected of a string quartet..." However, they have also been criticized as being severe, dry and intellectual with a "kind of high-flown rhetoric that almost seemed designed to show that 'new music' can live in a pretentiously self-absorbed world." Awards include the Deutsche Shallplatten Preis on various occasions, the

Gramophone Award The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. The British awards are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy ...

for best recording of contemporary music in 1999, 2002 and 2018, the Coup de Coeur Prize and Grand Prix from the Academie Charles Cros in 2004 and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for lifetime achievement in 1999. They are the first and only group to date to receive the Siemens Foundation prize.

Concerts and recordings

The Quartet is highly active throughout the year, mostly with performing and recording and premiering between twenty and fifty new works each year, taking time off only during the summer and Christmas vacations. They have performed hundreds of new works and commissions, with a discography of over 200 CDs on over twenty labels, by far the longest contemporary discography of any string quartet. A complete archive of the quartet's work is located at the Sacher Foundation in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland. Most of their performances are in concert halls and festivals within Europe, but they are known all over the world and have performed extensively in the US, Canada, Korea, South America, Japan and Mexico. One special piece which Arditti himself arranged the commission involved not playing in a concert hall. This was Stockhausen's ''Helicopter'' quartet, which required each member to perform his part in his own helicopter, and be relayed to the ground electronically where the audience was listening in a concert hall.

Discography

: String Quartets 1–4 (CD

Winter & Winter Winter & Winter is a record label in Munich, Germany that specializes in jazz, classical and improvised music. It was founded by Stefan Winter following the demise of his JMT Records label. Since 1997 Winter & Winter has released records by Da ...

910 242-2, released 2017) *

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

: ''The Tree of Strings'', 9 Movements (CD:

AEON The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

AECD1217, released 2012) *

: ''Music for Four'', 30 Pieces (CD:

MODE Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...

Mode17, released 1989) *John Cage: String Quartet in four parts, Four (CD: MODE Mode27, released 1992) *

: String Quartets 1–4, Elegy (CD:

Et Cetera ''Et cetera'' (, ), abbreviated to ''etc.'', ''et cet.'', ''&c.'' or ''&c'', is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and all the rest". "&" is a ligature of "et." Translated literally from Latin, can mean , while can mean ; th ...

KTC 1065-66, released 1989) *

: String Quartets 1–5, Musique Fugitive (CD:

AECD0983, released 2012) *Pascal Dusapin: String Quartets 6–7 (Quartet 6 Hinterland for quartet and orchestra) , AEON AECD1753, released 2017) *

: String Quartet Sonatas (1), 2–6, Adagissimo, Dum Transissets I-IV, Exordium, string trio's 1994 + 1995

AECD1335, released 2017) *

Roberto Gerhard Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (; 25 September 1896 – 5 January 1970) was a Spanish and British composer, musical scholar, and writer, generally known outside his native region of Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard.Malcolm MacDonald. 'Gerhard, Roberto' ...

: String Quartets 1–2, Chaconne (CD:

AECD1225, released 2010) * Jonathan Harvey: String Quartets 1–4, String trio (CD:

AECD0975, released 2009) *

: String Quartets 1–5 (CD: WERGO WER 60114/ 15-50, released 1986) *

Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio '' Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima' ...

: String Quartets Urbilder, Landscape I, Silent flowers, Floral fairy, Blossoming, Kalligraphie (CD: WERGO WER 6761 2, released 2013) *Toshio Hosokawa: Quintets, ''Fragmente II'' with recorder, ''Landscape II'' with harp, ''Landscape V'' with sho + solos elegy for violin, threnody for viola, chant for cello, (CD: WERGO WER 6769 2, released 2014) *

: String Quartets 1, 2 and 3 (CD: KAIROS Kairos 0012662, released 2011) *

: String Quartets 1, 2 (CD: WERGO WER 60079-50, released 1988) *György Ligeti: String Quartets 1, 2, 2 Movements, Ballad und tanz, Hyllning (CD:

SONY is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

SK62306, released 1996) *

Conlon Nancarrow Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was an American-Mexican composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his ''Studies for Player Piano'', being one of the first ...

: String Quartets 1, 3, Studie 15, 31, 33, 34, Toccata (CD: WERGO WER 6696 2, released 2007) * Hilda Paredes: ''Cuerdos del Destino'', ''Canciones Lunáticos'', ''Papalote'', ''In Memoriam Thomas Kakuska'' (CD: AEON AECD0975, released 2015) *

Karl Aage Rasmussen Karl Aage Rasmussen (born 13 December 1947) is a Danish composer and writer. He was born in Kolding. Composition Quotation and particularly collage played an important role in his music from the early 1970s, but increasingly he used pre-existing ...

: ''Solos and Shadows''; ''Surrounded by Scales'' / Bent Sørensen: ''Alman''; Adieu; Angels' Music (CD Dacapo 9003/9003b, released 1990) *

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

: String Quartets I–IV (CD: Montaigne/naive MO782024, released 1994) *Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Music (CD: Montaigne/naive MO782025, released 1995) *

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

: ''Helikopter Quartett'' (CD: Stockhausen Verlag CD 53A + B, released 1999) *

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

: complete string trios and quartets (CD: Montaigne/naive MO782136, released 1991) *

: complete string chamber music (CD: Montaigne/naive MO782005, released 1992) *

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

'' Myth and Mythopoeia'' (Tzadik, released 2014)

Other activities

Members of the group regularly conduct master classes in Europe, the United States and Canada, for performers and composers, generally in a guest capacity. From 1982 to 1996, they worked with young composers at the

Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse aft ...

. They also encourage younger quartets interested in new music. In 2013, they collaborated with the composer Brian Ferneyhough on a documentary called ''Climbing a Mountain'' which is about how the group prepares for the presentation of new pieces. It was created particularly for composers and music students to help them understand the rehearsal process.

Members

(violin), 1974– *Ashot Sarkissjan (violin), 2005– *Ralf Ehlers (viola), 2003– * (cello), 2006–

Past members

;Second violin :Lennox Mackenzie, 1974–1983 :

Alexander Bălănescu Alexander Bălănescu () (born 11 June 1954) is a Romanian violinist, and founder of the Balanescu Quartet. Biography Bălănescu was born in Bucharest, and at the age of seven went to the Special School for Music there. His teachers in Romania we ...

, 1983–1985 :David Alberman, 1985–1994 : Graeme Jennings, 1994–2005 ;Viola :

, 1974–1990 († 1954–2018) :

Garth Knox Garth Knox (born 8 October 1956 in Dublin, Ireland) is a violist and composer who specializes in contemporary classical music and new music. Biography Knox was the youngest of four siblings, and although he was born in Ireland, he was raised in ...

, 1990–1997 :Dov Scheindlin, 1997–2002 ;Cello :John Senter, 1974–1976 :Helen Liebmann, 1976–1977 :

Rohan de Saram Deshamanya Frank Rohan de Saram (9 March 1939 – 29 September 2024) was a British and Sri Lankan cellist who focused on contemporary music both as a soloist and as the cellist of the Arditti Quartet from 1979 to 2005. He learned both Western m ...

, 1977–2005 († 1939–2024)

References

External links

*
Arditti String Quartet
at Sony BMG Masterworks {{Authority control English string quartets Contemporary classical music ensembles Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners Musical groups established in 1974 Gramavision Records artists Winter & Winter Records artists Albany Records artists