For the last four decades, the Arditti Quartet has performed more world premieres than any other string quartet. Often these works were composed especially for the ensemble. In our interview, founder Irvine Arditti reflects on the first 40 years of this legacy.
What prompted you to form a string quartet and was it a case of desire or necessity?
I had an avid interest and passion for contemporary music as a child and later I formed a quartet to play the music that I liked. The music that was written, Lutoslawski and the second Ligeti quartet for instance, in fact some of the important repertoire from the LaSalle quartet were some of the works I was particularly inspired by. I wanted to form a quartet in London to play these pieces here.
So that’s how it began. I was a student at the RAM and Penderecki came to receive an honorary doctorate. I was asked to provide half an hour of his music to go with this ceremony. I got some friends together and we played a violin and piano work and his 2nd string quartet. That’s how the Arditti quartet started with that very first performance and rehearsing with Penderecki, which provided the model of how we would work for the next 40 years.
What was that experience like working directly with a composer?
Well, I immediately saw its potential. We learnt Penderecki’s piece before we met him, so when we played it to him, he could tell us how he wanted it and we could immediately adapt to these changes.
It’s like modeling an interpretation around a composer’s wishes but also with your inspiration and zeal as a player for the music. It’s not just doing what the composer wants but using that as a basis for our interpretation. I didn’t realize of course at the time that would be the way we would continue to work in the future, with composers writing many pieces for us.
Did that follow on quickly afterwards as your reputation rapidly developed?
Jonathan Harvey was the first person to write for us. His First String Quartet premiered in 1977. So from 1974 until 1977 no one had written a piece for us, but then I didn’t ask anyone to.
Why did you refrain from asking?
We were doing other jobs. I was second concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra until 1980. The quartet was fun, it wasn’t our profession, and we enjoyed doing it. We met composers like Ligeti and Henze, we worked with them and played their quartets in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
What would you say was the defining moment, which changed the quartet from being merely a hobby to becoming leading interpreters of contemporary music?
We were getting more and more engagements, composers were telling other composers, Ligeti was extremely happy with us, then we met Ferneyhough and Xenakis, both of whom were extremely happy with us, and then the whole thing just snowballed.
And there wasn’t and still isn’t a quartet in the UK performing the repertoire that you were engaged in presenting. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know. There wasn’t a quartet for many years doing what we became known for doing. There are several now playing the repertoire that we created.
I had no idea when we started that composers would want to write new pieces for us.
The quartet enjoys close relationships with a number of composers and some you’ve actually grown together…
Yes, and sadly some that were very important to the quartet are no longer with us. Well-known composers such as Xenakis, Ligeti and Nono were all very supportive of the Arditti Quartet and they always asked us to play their music.
The Arditti Quartet is 40 years young and has had a number of personnel changes during this time, but with one constant, your good self. What sort of impact does it have on the ensemble when a member decides to leave the quartet?
At the beginning the quartet was my passion. Gradually along the way we have attracted players who have great knowledge and great interest in this music and now we have a dream team of exactly that. It’s always a little daunting when someone wants to leave, but actually in some ways it’s quite refreshing to rehearse the repertoire again with someone new.
We have to work with people who are quick – it’s no good if you need to have ten rehearsals to play a piece when the other three players know it well. The new player needs a live brain. If he has this, then we go onwards and upwards.
I don’t think we’ve had any major problems in 40 years, and it has been rewarding and enjoyable working with all sorts of musicians, and, moreover, different sorts of people. I don’t think it’s daunting at all, I actually think it’s rather interesting to rework these pieces from time to time.
Does democracy exists within the quartet? How does this work?
Yes, there is democracy. At the end of the day someone has to be responsible for certain things. I tend to discuss almost everything with all the members of the quartet and get their opinion on it: particularly programmes, repertoire that we’re going to play or concerts that people have asked us to play etc. When we can’t come to a conclusive decision for something that needs to be resolved, it is left to me to piece together what everyone thinks and make a decision. So, to that extent it is undemocratic, because I am responsible for making that final decision. Of course we have several agents who deal with different things in different places, but someone has to oversee everything to ensure that it’s all going to work – and we do share that responsibility as I said. But in the end if a decision has to be made then I make it.
Do you find performing core classical repertoire challenging?
It’s interesting to be able to give a different vision to classical works.
Isn’t that what performers are supposed to do?
Yes, but you can get there more interestingly if you don’t follow the traditions and don’t listen to the way classical performers play this repertoire. Certainly not until we have given 4 or 5 performances of a work. Then we listen, if we dare…
Can you tell me how Xenakis became associated with the ensemble?
Xenakis’ music was important to me from the very beginning. I had gone to work on his first solo violin piece Mikka when I was 18. He was very encouraging to me and told me I would find a way to solve the technical problems of the piece. This statement, finding a way, has been very important to me generally. Finding a way to deal with all the challenges that would be thrust upon me in the word of new music.
In 1983, Xenakis was then commissioned to write Tetras for us and this proved to be one of the most energetic and audience loved quartets. Along with the string trio Ikhoor and the violin and piano piece Dikhthas, I think these are the strongest string works of Xenakis.
All Xenakis concerts have proved to be very successful with audiences. The sheer energy and drive of the music seems to carry these programmes to other levels. It was in 1992, at hcmf//, where we first played an all Xenakis programme with the composer present. It’s fun to present Xenakis concerts because you usually get a real buzz from the audience as well.
When it’s as exhilarating as Xenakis and you have the opportunity and privilege to perform music like that in concert, one relies on adrenalin to find the required energy. Audiences like loud repetitive music people latch on to that, they like and can identify with it because it excites them. A lot of the repertoire we play is much more meditative. It doesn’t mean this is less good music, it just means it’s different.
Is it true to say the quartet have laid the benchmark for contemporary string quartet performance practice?
Yes, I believe so, but not intentionally. That’s just the way it happened. There’s this large repertoire that we created either by asking composers to write music or because they like the quartet so much they have wanted to write pieces for us anyway. And we work with the composers and play their pieces the way they wanted to hear them. Now that doesn’t mean that another quartet can’t come along and do things in different ways. I’ve always said the nice thing about good music is that you don’t have to play it in one way. There are different approaches, different styles of playing and if it’s a good piece it survives different interpretations.
But, there’s no getting away from the fact that we worked with the composers and they liked the way we played their music. That’s not to say they wouldn’t also like the way other groups would perform their work. The performances or recordings we did in a way define the way the music is or was, and certainly if younger groups want to listen or hear those pieces, that’s the closest they’re going to get to what the composer wanted because the composer was around to consult personally. It is then up to them to take the interpretation in other directions if they want to.
What next for the Arditti’s?
One never knows what’s going to happen in the future. You never know how you feel when you wake up tomorrow morning. I never like to predict things like that. One always thinks you’ll go on and that there’ll always be interesting music to play. 40 years is quite a long time to have done this for. I’m not saying I’m going to stop tomorrow but I don’t think I’ll be going on for another 40 years. No, I can categorically say that I won’t be going on for another 40 years!
Interview: Elaine Mitchener
On 9 May, the Arditti Quartet will perform Manoury's 3rd quartet Melencolia and will continue their 40th anniversary celebrations with a programme which includes new works by UMPC composers Kurtag, Lim, and Stroppa at The Days for New Music in Witten.
www.ardittiquartet.co.uk