Arditti Quartet at 40 - Episode 2

[Guest]

Mixed recordings from three concerts from the Barbican in April.

I seem to remember the Hosokawa was admired by reviewers. James Clarke's 3rd quartet was the only piece that got me on the day but most music's easier to my ears after weeks of taking blows to the head from Birtwistle. These recordings start with a terrific, vivid performance of Xenakis' Tetras. Very astringent and full of variety and playfulness in the sound.

Enjoying the Dusapin, too. All 5 of the quartets are on Spotify, played by the Ardittis. His sombre, lyrical violin concerto Aufgang was on the Barbi about the same time.

Iannis Xenakis - Tetras

Pascal Dusapin - Quartet No.5

Wolfgang Rihm - Fetzen I & II

Toshio Hosokawa - Silent Flowers

[ahinton]

I'm surprised indeed that there have been no responses in this thread, givewn the long history and importance of the Arditti Quartet and the immense contribution that they have made over four decades to contemporary music, mainly for string quartet. The searing performance of Xenakis's Tetras - surely one of his most engaging works - was thrilling in the extreme (as indeed it has to be otherwise it would fall very flat!); commissioned by Irvine Arditti himself more than 30 years ago, it strikes me as a far better work than the composer's subsequent Tetora, for the same ensemble and I've heard many enthisiatic comments about it from people who would not usually listen to Xenakis's music.

I didn't take kindly to Ivan Hewett's referencce to the Kronos Quartet as the Arditti's "rivals", despite him illustrating the differences of approach and repertoire choices of the two ensembles; that they've each concentrated almost entirely on contemporary and relatively recent quartet repertoire is just about where the similarity ends and, although their repertoire doesn't cross often, I have heard each ensemble in a much earlier 20th century classic, Bartók's Quartet No. 3 and found the Kronos to be very tame and disappointing by comparison to the Ardittis.

In conversation with Irvine Arditti years ago, I recall him bemoaning the fact that so few quartets seemed willing to take the plunge and explore some of the more challenging areas of quartet repertoire and he hoped that their own performances might help to encourage some of them to do so; he said that he'd be happier even if more quartets regularly played Bartók and Shostakovich! I think that, to a point, his wish has been fulfilled (one has only to think, for example, of the Pacifica Quartet playing all five Carter quartets in a single programme), yet the six quartets of Ferneyhough in particular seem still to be very much "Arditti" territory.

My only quibble with - or at least concern about - the Ardittis' repertoire is that, when they began, almost everything they played was post-1945 and even their subsequent repertoire range expansion has very rarely taken in pre-20th century music; sureloy one of the most fascoinating aspects of wht the Ardittis have done so successfully is that the string quartet is at least as alive as an ensemble today as it was in Haydn's day and, given the importance of Haydn as a quartet composer, it would have been fascinating to hear the Ardittis in Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert et al - but I suppose it's a matter of available preparation time, given that their voracious appetite for new works (especially those in which new notation and playing techniques are explored). The Pacifica do, after all, manage to programme "standard" (horrible word!) quartet repertoire as well as challenging contemporary works.

Surely some members here heard the broadcast and have something to say about it?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I haven't listened yet - but I'd add the Diotima and JACK quartets to the Pacificas in the list of ensembles who have taken up the interest in the repertoire that the (various) Ardittis created/promoted.

[ahinton]

I haven't listened yet - but I'd add the Diotima and JACK quartets to the Pacificas in the list of ensembles who have taken up the interest in the repertoire that the (various) Ardittis created/promoted.

Indeed - the Diotima are a particularly remarkable quartet and I can honestly say that I've never heard a more compelling performance of the C# minor quartet (need I mention whose?!) than theirs live at Dartington a few years ago. The Danel are another ensemble who have made quite a few inroads into new and recent quartet repertoire.

[kea]

it would have been fascinating to hear the Ardittis in Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert et al

There's a rather excellent version of the Grosse Fuge on one of their early albums (now out-of-print). After the Hagen Quartet's 2nd recording, restoring it to its rightful position as finale of the B-flat major quartet and projecting a unified vision of that imposing work (also out-of-print) it might be my favourite rendition of that piece, though remember the Budapest Quartet as also compelling.

I haven't listened yet - but I'd add the Diotima and JACK quartets to the Pacificas in the list of ensembles who have taken up the interest in the repertoire that the (various) Ardittis created/promoted.

There's also Quartetto Prometeo, the Kairos (named, I think, after the record label) and Stadler quartets, and a few others. And I'm continually hoping for more contemporary from the Zehetmair Quartet.

And the Kronos Quartet's spawned its own followers, of which I think the most interesting is probably Brooklyn Rider.

[ahinton]

There's a rather excellent version of the Grosse Fuge on one of their early albums (now out-of-print). After the Hagen Quartet's 2nd recording, restoring it to its rightful position as finale of the B-flat major quartet and projecting a unified vision of that imposing work (also out-of-print) it might be my favourite rendition of that piece, though remember the Budapest Quartet as also compelling.

I do recall hearing the Ardittis in this years ago but found it uncharacteristically disappointing and rather tentative; also, it was a pity, to my mind, that they didn't perform and record the entire quartet because the Grosse Fuge comes into its own as its finale as it can never quite manage to do as a standalone piece, however persuasive the performance.

[Richard Barrett]

There's a rather excellent version of the Grosse Fuge on one of their early albums (now out-of-print). After the Hagen Quartet's 2nd recording, restoring it to its rightful position as finale of the B-flat major quartet and projecting a unified vision of that imposing work (also out-of-print)

I remember that recording of op.133, which struck me as very powerful and valuable, if not so idiomatic; however, as it happens I've been listening a bit obasessively to that Hagen recording of op.130/133 in recent weeks and as far as I'm concerned no recorded performance I know has come closer to the energy and complexity of this work. I should point out, though, that the (also excellent but not quite on the same level) LaSalle recording of op.130 uses op.133 as the finale as well.

[Richard Barrett]

And on the subject of the Arditti Quartet: I've written three pieces for them (one a piano quintet), apart from which I've also worked with the Pellegrini, Diotima and Kairos, all of whom are excellent performers of course, but what makes the Arditti special as far as I'm concerned is that there's simply no difficulty in terms of rhythmical coordination that they aren't rapidly able to resolve and overcome convincingly. This comes from having had to give hundreds of premieres of often quite challenging pieces and thus building up a depth of expertise which no other quartet has had to develop.

[ahinton]

And on the subject of the Arditti Quartet: I've written three pieces for them (one a piano quintet), apart from which I've also worked with the Pellegrini, Diotima and Kairos, all of whom are excellent performers of course, but what makes the Arditti special as far as I'm concerned is that there's simply no difficulty in terms of rhythmical coordination that they aren't rapidly able to resolve and overcome convincingly. This comes from having had to give hundreds of premieres of often quite challenging pieces and thus building up a depth of expertise which no other quartet has had to develop.

There can be no realistic argument with that and, if there's one single illustrative factor in support of it, it's probably the fact that they alone have, over the years, given public performances of every note that Brian Ferneyhough has ever written for string quartet other than the elusive first quartet of 1963 and uniquely taken all of this immensely challenging (especially in those rhythmic co-ordination terms that you mention) repertoire in their stride.

That said, did anyone else here listen to the broadcast last Saturday and do they have comments to make about it?

[Serial_Apologist]

There can be no realistic argument with that and, if there's one single illustrative factor in support of it, it's probably the fact that they alone have, over the years, given public performances of every note that Brian Ferneyhough has ever written for string quartet other than the elusive first quartet of 1963 and uniquely taken all of this immensely challenging (especially in those rhythmic co-ordination terms that you mention) repertoire in their stride.

That said, did anyone else here listen to the broadcast last Saturday and do they have comments to make about it?

I didn't, but shall a.s.a.p. This particular programe was only an hour long: here's the link to the iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsx/episodes/player

[amateur51]

Indeed - the Diotima are a particularly remarkable quartet and I can honestly say that I've never heard a more compelling performance of the C# minor quartet (need I mention whose?!) than theirs live at Dartington a few years ago. The Danel are another ensemble who have made quite a few inroads into new and recent quartet repertoire.

I wonder if this sort of in-the-know nudge-nudgery might have contributed to the phenomenon that you note in message #2

I'm surprised indeed that there have been no responses in this thread, givewn the long history and importance of the Arditti Quartet and the immense contribution that they have made over four decades to contemporary music, mainly for string quartet.

[Roehre]

....

That said, did anyone else here listen to the broadcast last Saturday and do they have comments to make about it?

First: "off topic" a bit: before I had heard any note of the "classic" quartet performed by the Ardittis I was doubtful whether they would be a good in that repertoire as in the post 1945 works. Thanks to Bryn I listened to their op.133 and have to say that -though stand alone- this is one of the most powerfull performances I have encountered.

Last Saturday's broadcast was -without the Hosokawa to which I haven't listened yet- a very nice surprise.
Tetras was as wild and spectacular as I remembered it was, Dusapin's lyricism was subtly stressed (perhaps even at the cost of the overall structure) and the Rihm was Rihm. Though I like Rihm's works I have got to admit: bits of music which sometimes do, but as often don't make much sense - I would have preferred a performance/broadcast of the complete 12th quartet (in which Fetzen i is integrated).

[Beresford]

To me the Arditti Quartet always sound a bit like David tackling Goliath. Wonderfully impressive though it is, I sometimes long for the slightly less supercharged playing of say the Smith quartet. I do wonder what the Arditti would be like playing Debussy - probably very good as they can change the rhythmic pulse several times in a few bars. But can they do French nonchalence?

[pastoralguy]

To me the Arditti Quartet always sound a bit like David tackling Goliath. Wonderfully impressive though it is, I sometimes long for the slightly less supercharged playing of say the Smith quartet. I do wonder what the Arditti would be like playing Debussy - probably very good as they can change the rhythmic pulse several times in a few bars. But can they do French nonchalence?

I heard the Arditti a couple of years ago at an Edinburgh Festival Concert that was given in the Queen's Hall where they played the Debussy Quartet in the second half after playing two works that had been written for them recently. I'm not sure if these works were given the bulk of the rehearsal time but, frankly, the Debussy was a scrappy, hack performance that was very high class busking. It wasn't together, it wasn't in tune and it certainly wasn't musical.

The impression given was that since it was only the Debussy quartet and it was a provincial gig anyway then why bother. (And this was at a time when the concerts weren't broadcast live which may have been why they appeared so unconcerned about their 'performance').

The first half started with Arditti giving a snotty speech about how they had changed the running order and thought they had better announce it in case no one noticed it! Very unprofessional.

[ahinton]

I wonder if this sort of in-the-know nudge-nudgery might have contributed to the phenomenon that you note in message #2

Oh, come now! "Nudge-nudgery"? OK, here's a clue; it wasn't by Hespos but might have been by one of his compatriots...