Arditti Quartet - NOSPR

Irvine Arditti – violin
Ashot Sarkissjan – violin
Ralf Ehlers – viola
Lucas Fels – cello

“...consummate, extraordinary mastery.”
– The Guardian

The Arditti Quartet enjoys a global reputation for their spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music. Several hundred string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by first violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974. These works have left a permanent mark on 20th century repertoire and the genre itself, and have given the Arditti Quartet a firm place in music history. The quartet celebrates its 50^th anniversary in 2024.

Such composers as Adès, Aperghis, Birtwistle, Cage, Carter, Dufourt, Dusapin, Fedele, Ferneyhough, Francesconi, Gubaidulina, Harvey, Hosokawa, Kagel, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Rihm, Scelsi, Sciarrino and Stockhausen have entrusted the world premieres of their music to them, and the quartet’s repertoire comprises all of the string quartets of many of the above composers and others.

The ensemble believes that close collaboration with composers is vital to the process of interpreting modern music and aims therefore to collaborate with every composer whose works it plays. Teaching for many years at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music among others, the players have given numerous master classes and workshops for young performers and composers all over the world.

The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features well over 200 CDs. 42 discs have so far been released as part of the ensemble’s continuing series on the French label Naïve Montaigne alone. The series presents numerous contemporary composer features as well as the first digital recordings of the complete Second Viennese School’s string quartet music. The quartet is renowned for recording many composers’ works in their presence, including  the complete quartets of Luciano Berio shortly before his death. Legendary episodes in recent music history have also been immortalised on CD, such as Stockhausen’s spectacular Helicopter Quartet.

Over the past 50 years, the ensemble has received many prizes for its work. It has won the Deutscher Schallplatten Preis several times and the Gramophone Award for the best recording of contemporary music in 1999 (Elliott Carter), 2002 (Harrison Birtwistle) and 2018 (Pascal Dusapin). The prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize was awarded to them in 1999 for lifetime achievement in music, setting the quartet on a par with other winners such as Berio, Britten, Carter, Ferneyhough, Lachenmann, Ligeti and Rihm.

"With their tantalisingly nonchalant accomplishment, one sometimes forgets the enormous difficulties of the works. [...]For the Ardittis, the term 'unplayable' does not exist. They always maintain control and most certainly never lack musical presence, charisma and energy."
– Schweitzer Musikzeitung