Arditti Quartet at Musashino Shimin Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall, December 3rd 2019

There’s a picture on the internet of the Arditti Quartet that it is one of the most badass pictures I’ve ever seen. It was taken a while ago, with Irvine Arditti sporting a full-on black afro. The four members are all crouching down in the front row. The second row, behind them, is occupied by three towering figures of the arts in the Twentieth Century: Elliott Carter, La Monte Young and John Cage. This unique document that reunites these three individuals represents Arditti Quartet’s influence and unquestionable relevance in contemporary music. Their role as promoters of some of the most challenging music from the last fifty years can not be understated.

This evening’s program went back further and showcased pieces written over a hundred years ago in some cases, among the most contemporary fare. The turnout was more than decent, the concert hall was almost full. Right on time they came out on stage and started the program with one of the six string quartets written by Béla Bartók  The shortest one, String Quartet No. 3. The pianissimo start builds up towards thundering climaxes which were performed with the necessary bravura for this type of music, reminiscent of Stravinsky and the transition at the beginning of the 20th Century from Romanticism to Expressionism and Experimental music. Bartók utilizes several techniques like pizzicatos and glissandos. Melodic and dissonant at the same time, building an atmosphere that’s engaging and captivating as the rest of his string quartets masterpieces. 

The second piece in the program upped the ante in terms of difficulty, perhaps. The String Quartet Op. 3 by Alban Berg predates Schoenberg’s twelve tone method of composition. Nonetheless it showcases the atonality commonly associated with the Second Viennese School. That seven note motif that opens the piece and that is repeated throughout is a prime example of showcasing dissonance as the primary theme of a piece, an idea that back in 1910 was definitely revolutionary. There’s a more traditional approach in the contrast between these modernists methods and the use of the string quartet as a vehicle, nonetheless. Unlike the previous Bartók quartet, the atmosphere is less bombastic and more ethereal.

After the intermission we were treated to a premiere. Toshio Hosokawa has a an association with the Arditti Quartet that goes back to the mid-nineties, when they first recorded some of his work for Disques Montaigne, the French label that specialized in contemporary music. Passage is the title of the piece and like in some of his previous works explores the possibilities of different timbres, with the quartet playing in what it sounds almost like a muffled register. The sound reproduced is not easy to describe. Neither loud nor soft, it evokes a kind of juxtaposition of agitation and calmness. With its sudden crescendos and diminuendos it painted a picture of the paradoxes find in Japanese culture between the old and the new. It followed the path of the previously performed pieces in the way that contrasted tradition with abstraction.

The last piece switched to rampant abstraction mode. Experiencing a György Ligeti piece performed live is definitely a treat and this was the second time I had the chance to do so. He considered his String Quartet No. 2 his favorite from that period in the late sixties in which he developed the idea of micropolyphony. When I think about that term I think about the cluster of sounds that shift slowly and you hear in Requiem or Atmosphères, both prominently displayed in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The String quartet explores these venues in five movements, ranging from explosive pointillism to slow legatos and expressive pizzicatos. A whole range of techniques that effectively deconstruct all the remaining traditional elements of the string quartet form within the form itself. A fascinating journey a little bit over twenty minutes long that capped the evening magnificently. 

As an encore we got the brief Arioso Interrotto form Officium Breve in Memoriam Andreae Szervansky by György Kurtag. The one minute melodic and truly moving piece, showcasing Irvine Arditti on first violin, summarized the range of emotions that Arditti Quartet reproduced during the evening. It was a soft and poetic close to this overview of the string quartet in the Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries. 
  
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