#irvine arditti

[hellocanticle]

A Reason to Listen: Roger Reynolds’ Latest, “For a Reason”,new recordings on Neuma Records

Neuma 128 Roger Reynolds (1934- ) turns 90 next year. This prolific American artist’s work is being collected and preserved by the Library of Congress. The present recording is the most recent release documenting Reynolds’ music, now numbering about 30 CDs and DVDs. And this is but a fraction of his musical works. I first encountered Reynolds’ music when I heard a broadcast of the first…

[elmartillosinmetre]

Mi crítica del concierto del Cuarteto Arditti esta noche en el Espacio Turina.

[lesser-known-composers]

Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) : String quartet no. 1 (1947)

1. Allegro molto 0:00 2. Andantino 5:16 3. Lento, ma non troppo 13:13 4. Presto 15:17

played by the Arditti String Quartet :

(Irvine Arditti, Alexander Bălănescu, Levine Andrade & Rohan de Saram)

[meravigliedappertutto]

John Cage The Works For Violin 4

[berezina]

DOX-ORCH (1991) (Iannis Xenakis) [Irvine Arditti, violin; Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; Jonathan Nott, conductor] [buy]

[danielmunozosorio]

Fragments triats - for String Quartet (2021)

Arditti Quartet

Irvine Arditti, 1. Violine Ashot Sarkissjan, 2. Violine Ralf Ehlers, Viola Lucas Fels, Violoncello

UA für Streichquartett Konzertmitschnitt vom 26. Mai 2021 aus dem Konzertsaal der HFM Dresden

[fileunder]

Two Recordings by David Felder (CD Review)

Two Recordings by David Felder (CD Review)

David Felder

Jeu de Tarot

Irvine Arditti, violin; Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman, conductor; Arditti Quartet

Coviello CD COV91913

David Felder

Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux

Laura Aikin, soprano; Ethan Hesrchenfeld, bass;

Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor

BMOPsound CD 1069

David Felder has taught for a number of years at SUNY Buffalo, running the June in…

[geidaicomposition]

Lecture by Arditti Quartet : String Quartet Today

* Opened only to the people on the inside.

Date: Fri. November 29, 2019. 15:00-17:00

Venue: H416, Faculty of Music.

Lecturer:

Irvine Arditti (violin) Ashot Sarkissjan (violin) Ralf Ehlers (viola) Lucas Fels (Violoncello)

  Interpreter: Wakako Hanada

Profile of the Quartet

[Course description]

further details coming soon

　 　　

　　

　　

planning：Prof. Ichiro Nodaira           

[incarnationsf]

The Schubert Project – Ensemble 1828

Date & Time: Friday June 28 at  7:30 pm Venue: 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco Tickets: $20 General, $15 Seniors/Students Buy tickets online

Celebrate pride and the genius of Franz Schubert (1797-1828) in an all-Schubert program for violin, cello, and piano.

Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music. Appreciation of Schubert’s music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the 19th century, and his music continues to be popular.

Program

Ensemble 1828 — violinist Nicole Oswald, cellist Isaac Pastor-Chermak, and pianist Alison Lee — makes their debut with an eight-concert tour throughout Northern California in Summer 2019. Honoring Schubert’s last and most productive year with their name, Ensemble 1828 will present an all-Schubert program, highlighting music composed in their namesake year and featuring varied groupings of violin, cello and piano. Come for the timeless solo piano impromptus, stay for the intimate duos for cello and piano and violin and piano, and come back after intermission for the epic, symphonic Piano Trio No.1.

Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor, D.821

Impromptu in G-flat major, Op.90 No.3

Impromptu in A-flat major, Op. 90 No.4

Violin Sonata in A major, D.574

Piano Trio No.1 in B-flat major, D.898

About the Artists

Nicole Oswald recently received an Artist Diploma from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, studying under renowned concert violinist and pedagogue Charles Castleman as a graduate teaching assistant and Henry Mancini Institute fellow.  Prior to attending Frost, Nicole studied violin at the Utrechts Conservatory, Netherlands and the Eastman School of Music. Nicole began her studies of music in her hometown of Boise, Idaho. She has accumulated many honors in the Northwest including; 1st prize at the Coeur d’Alene National Young Artists Competition 2012 and 3rd prize at the national level of the Music Teacher’s National Association: Senior String Division competition held in NYC, 2012. Her string quartet also received 1st prize in the Boise Chamber Music Series: String Quartet Competition in 2012 and 2013. Alongside performing within numerous symphony orchestras, Nicole has performed contemporary music in many ensembles including, Ossia New Music, the Empire Film Music Ensemble, and the Slee Sinfonietta (University of Buffalo, NY). Nicole has been a guest artist at the Castleman Quartet Program and has studied chamber music with members of the; Pacifica, Fine Arts, Ying, Dover, Cavani, Concord, Juilliard, Bergonzi and Chilingirian String Quartets. She has appeared in solo master classes with; Rachel Barton Pine, Christian Tetzlaff, Mimi Zweig, Giora Schmidt, Csaba Erdélyi, Irvine Arditti, and Vadim Repin. While in Miami, Nicole was a chamber music coach for Miami Youth for Chamber Music, appeared as a guest performer with the Bergonzi String Quartet and played in the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra. In fall of 2018, Nicole will continue her studies as the teaching assistant of Andres Cardenes at Carnegie Mellon University.

Alison Lee recently completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Lydia Artymiw. She received her MM degree from Rice University under Jon Kimura Parker, and BM degree from Oberlin Conservatory under Angela Cheng.  A native of Fremont, California, Alison studied with Hans Boepple and Jed Galant during her precollege years.

Alison was the first prize winner in several piano competitions, including Thursday Musical’s Young Artist Scholarship Competition in Minnesota, the Pacific Musical Society Competition in San Francisco, the Dorothy Van Waynen Piano Competition in Berkeley, and the Graves Music Competition in Ohio. Most recently, she won second place in the 2016 Midwest International Piano Competition, where she performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. An avid chamber musician, she frequently collaborates with colleagues and friends as well as with her sister Katherine as duo pianists.

In Summer 2018, following nine years of world-class education around the United States, Alison returns to the Bay Area to launch her career as an educator, collaborator, and soloist. She is already in high demand as a studio piano teacher, and looks forward to a number of performance engagements throughout the Western United States in the 2018-19 season. In July 2018, Alison will coach chamber music at ChamberFest LIVE, a summer day camp for middle- and high-school students in Fremont, CA; and in August 2018, she will appear as staff pianist at the Castleman Quintet Program in Portland, OR.

Isaac Pastor-Chermak is Principal Cellist of Portland Opera and Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony; Associate Principal Cellist of Stockton Symphony; and a member of Santa Barbara Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony, and Dayton Philharmonic. Beginning August 2018, he will conclude his summers performing at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. Mr. Pastor-Chermak is the cellist of Black Cedar Trio, the only professional flute-cello-guitar ensemble in the country, and enjoys frequent sonata collaborations with pianists Miles Graber and Alison Lee.

Mr. Pastor-Chermak is in constant demand as a soloist and recital artist, performing more than 100 concerts every season on an 1889 Riccardo Antoniazzi cello. In the first half of 2018 alone, he will perform a major duo recital with pianist Alison Lee, featuring works of Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven and Prokofiev; C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A minor with Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony; Eugen d’Albert’s Cello Concerto in C major with Oakland Civic Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein’s Meditation No.3, also with Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony; two performances of the complete Bach Suites for Solo Cello; and a live-recorded concert with Black Cedar Trio. Mr. Pastor-Chermak fits these creative projects around weekly symphonic programs throughout the country, as well as his local teaching and conducting obligations.

As an educator, Mr. Pastor-Chermak is Beelard Foundation Artist-in-Residence at Young Artists Conservatory of Music in Vacaville, CA; and a faculty member at Dominican Sisters School of Music in Fremont, CA. His cello students and chamber ensembles receive consistent high marks in regional competitions. He is founder and principal conductor of Solano Youth Chamber Orchestra, the first youth orchestra in the city of Vacaville. Pastor-Chermak serves on the Board of Directors of the East Bay Music Foundation, where he supports outreach and performance opportunities for young musicians in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties. Pastor-Chermak holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. with honors) and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.M. with honors). He makes his home in the North Berkeley hills, but is at home wherever the music takes him. www.isaacpastorchermak.com.

[todayclassical]

February 08 in Music History

1586 Birth of composer Jacob Praetorius. 

1708 Birth of Italian composer Pasquale Cafaro. 1709 Death of Italian composer Giuseppe Torelli, at age 50, in Bologna.

1710 FP of Alessandro Scarlatti's opera La Principessa Fedele at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.

1741 Birth of French composer André Grétry in Liège. 

1810 Birth of German composer Norbert Burgmüller in Düsseldorf. 

1849 Death of French composer, violinist, conductor, François-Antoine Habeneck.

1875 Birth of tenor Leon-Pierre Campagnola in Marseilles.  

1875 Birth of soprano Janina Korolewicz-Wayda in Warsaw.  

1875 Birth of soprano Georgette Leblanc in Tancarville. 

1879 Birth of soprano Mizzi Günther in Warnsdorf, Bohemia.  

1888 Birth of Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen in Helmond. 

1894 Birth of pianist Rosita Renard in Chile. 

1900 Birth of baritone Laurens Bogtman in Oudkarspel, Holland. 

1903 Birth of soprano Bela Rozumova in Pribram.

1904 Death of soprano Malvina Garrigues. 

1904 FP of Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in Helsinki. Helsingfors Philharmonic conducted by the composer. Victor Novácek as soloist. 

1906 Birth of Polish-American pianist Arthur Balsam. 

1906 Birth of bass-baritone Ferdinand Frantz in Cassel.  

1907 FP of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 with the Rosé Quartet and members of the Vienna Philharmonic in Vienna. 

1908 FP of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, composer conducting, in St. Petersburg. 

1909 Death of Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz.

1910 FP of A. Webern's Five Movements, Op. 5, for string quartet, in Vienna. 

1911 Birth of bass Gerhard Frei in Breslau. 

1912 Birth of soprano Ilona Steingruber in Vienna. 

1912 Birth of Russian-born Swiss pianist Nikita Magaloff in St. Petersburg. 1914 Birth of Italian tenor Giacinto Prandelli in Lumezzane. 

1915 Birth of English conductor and musicologist Newell Jenkins. 

1921 Death of baritone Francisco D'Andrade.  1925 FP of Henry Cowell's Ensemble the original version for strings and 3 American Indian 'thunder-sticks. Sponsored by the International Composers' Guild at Aeolian Hall in NYC. 1925 FP of Miaskovsky's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7, in Moscow. 1928 Birth of Welsh harpist and composer Osian Ellis. 1932 Birth of American composer, conductor and pianist John Williams in NYC.  1934 Birth of Dutch soprano Elly Ameling in Rotterdam.

1935 Birth of bass Tugomir Franc in Zagreb.   1938 Birth of baritone Marco Bakker in Beverwijk, Holland.  1940 Birth of American composer Margaret Brouwer. 1940 Birth of American composer Talib Rasul Hakim. 1941 Birth of American composer, flutist and composer Kay Goodman in Freeport, NY. 1941 Birth of tenor Kosuke Taguchi in Tottori, Japan.  1942 FP of Igor Stravinsky's Danses concertantes. Werner Janssen Orchestra of Los Angeles, composer conducting. 1943 Birth of American composer John Heilman Schooley in Nelson, PA. 1943 Birth of baritone Malcolm Donnelly in Sydney.  1946 FP of Bela Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 finished by Tibor Serly. Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting. György Sándor, soloist.  1947 Birth of soprano Elke Schary in Beuthen.  1948 Birth of English baritone Stephen Roberts.  1953 Birth of English violinist Irvine Arditti. 1959 FP of Elie Siegmeister's Symphony No. 3, in Oklahoma City. 1961 Death of soprano Luisa Villani. 1963 FP of Benjamin Lee's (Lysniasky) Violin Concerto, in Boston. 1973 FP of George Crumb's Makrokosmos, Volume I for amplified piano, in New York.  1976 Death of soprano Gladys Moncrieff.  1983 Death of tenor Charles Kullmann. 1985 FP of Earle Brown's Tracer for six instruments and four-track tape, in Berlin. 1986 FP of Daniel Pinkham's Symphony No. 3. Plymouth Philharmonic, Rudolf Schlegel conducting in Plymouth MA. 1998 Death of tenor Gino Penno.  2001 FP of Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra's Concerto for Orchestra. Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting. 2013 Death of American conductor James DePreist in Arizona.

2017 Death of tenor Nicolai Gedda.

[hellocanticle]

Other Minds 24 Revives the Quartets of Ivan Wyschnegradsky in San Francisco

Other Minds 24 Revives the Quartets of Ivan Wyschnegradsky in San Francisco

I admit to some trepidation as I proceeded to the beautiful War Memorial Opera House in downtown San Francisco.  While I had heard of this composer, Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979), it was only through one work which was contained on a disc with other microtonal works by John Cage and Harry Partch performed variously by Joshua Pierce, Dorothy Jonas, and Johnny Reinhard (among others).  And…

[elmartillosinmetre]

El cuarteto del milenio

[El Cuarteto Arditti. / LUKAS BECK]

El Cuarteto Arditti ofrece el sábado en el Espacio Turina un monográfico dedicado al compositor madrileño José Manuel López López

Se cuenta que cuando el malogrado Francisco Guerrero trabajaba en Zayin llamó un día a Irvine Arditti preocupado por la extrema dificultad de lo que estaba componiendo. Dicen que Arditti lo tranquilizó: “Todo lo que tú seas capaz de escribir, yo seré capaz de tocarlo”. La anécdota refleja la actitud de este músico nacido en Londres en 1953, que llegó a ser concertino de la Sinfónica de Londres, pero que debe su fama principalmente a la labor desarrollada con el cuarteto que creó en 1974. Siempre buscando ir más allá de los límites. Esa ha sido la premisa en la que el Cuarteto Arditti ha fundado su casi medio siglo de existencia.

El ciclo Zayin acabo estrenándose completo en el Teatro Central de Sevilla el 8 de febrero de 1997, apenas ocho meses antes de la muerte de Guerrero a los 46 años de edad. Era un tiempo en que el Arditti solía visitar con frecuencia Sevilla para participar en el ciclo de música contemporánea que la Junta de Andalucía mantenía anualmente en el Central y el Teatro Alhambra de Granada. El ciclo fue desinflándose, desapareció hace unos años de Granada y la pandemia fue la excusa perfecta para liquidarlo también en Sevilla. Justo aquel 2020, en su última edición programada (y luego cancelada), estaba prevista una nueva visita del Cuarteto Arditti. Tres años después, en otro contexto y otro espacio, el Arditti vuelve finalmente a Sevilla.

Impresiona verdaderamente la nómina de compositores a los que el conjunto ha estrenado obras, porque aunque el Arditti se especializó desde el principio en la música de vanguardia, tocando todo el repertorio relevante escrito para su formación en el siglo XX, siempre concedió prioridad al trabajo directo con los compositores en la creación de música nueva. Todo ello ha quedado documentado en una discografía abrumadora, que supera las 300 referencias e incluye monográficos de más de 200 compositores diferentes. Nada parecido puede encontrarse en el mundo de la música de vanguardia.

[José Manuel López López (Madrid, 1956) / CLAUDE TRUONG-NGOC]

Entre los compositores que el Cuarteto Arditti aún no ha grabado se encuentra José Manuel López López (Madrid, 1956) cuyos dos cuartetos sin embargo sí estrenó el grupo, ambos en Valencia, el 1º en mayo de 2007 y el 2º en septiembre de 2020. Son esas las dos obras con las que el Cuarteto Arditti se presentará en la Sala Silvio. Entre medias el Trío III del madrileño, una obra del año 2008, la primera del compositor para la formación clásica de piano, violín y violonchelo (los otros dos tríos son para violín, clarinete y piano y para flauta, viola y guitarra), y para la que se contará con la colaboración del pianista salmantino Alberto Rosado.

López López, Premio Nacional de Música en el año 2000, es una de las figuras esenciales de la música española de nuestros días. Discípulo de Luis de Pablo y muy vinculado a París, donde reside y enseña (Universidad París VIII, Conservatorio Edgar Varèse de Gennevilliers), la música de López López se mueve dentro de los parámetros del espectralismo, una de las tendencias más destacadas del último medio siglo, surgida en torno a la obra de un trío de compositores franceses (Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail y Hughes Dufourt) muy cercanos al IRCAM parisino, el centro de investigación creado por Boulez a mediados de los 70, especialmente renombrado por el trabajo con la electrónica y los recursos de las más modernas tecnologías. Tratando de alejarse del serialismo integral, los espectralistas pusieron el foco en el timbre y en la textura, que trabajan a partir de la descomposición del espectro del sonido y de determinados modelos matemáticos, en donde conectan con algunos enfoques de Boulez o Stockhausen, las micropolifonías de Ligeti y la música estocástica de Xenakis, un compositor al que López López ha dedicado varias obras.

[Diario de Sevilla. 13-01-2023]

[ansaemiliaromagna]

Forlì open music, due giorni di concerti

In cartellone Irvine Arditti, trio Dkv, duo Pace-Roma https://ift.tt/2A40gaz

[losslessbest]

Irvine Arditti - Reynolds: Aspiration (2018)

Format: FLAC (tracks) Quality: lossless Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz / 16 Bit Source: Digital download Artist: Irvine Arditti Title: Reynolds: Aspiration Genre: Classical Release Date: 2018 Scans: not included

https://losslessbest24bit.com/37930-irvine-arditti-reynolds-aspiration-2018.html

[kalynalanguagepress]

Festival d’automne : Irvine Arditti, profession musique contemporaine https://t.co/d4Di3SEUW2

Festival d’automne : Irvine Arditti, profession musique contemporaine https://t.co/d4Di3SEUW2

— KalynaLanguagePress (@KalynaPress) September 7, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/KalynaPress September 07, 2017 at 01:31PM via IFTTT

[oneyear-sixteenstrings-blog]

Xenakis: ST/4

Arditti Quartet

Irvine Arditti, first violin David Alberman, second violin Garth Knox, viola Rohan de Saram, cello

Naive MO782137 Recording date: 1991 Duration: [11:11]

When I first listened to the Xenakis quartets in 2011, I thought Tetras, his second quartet, was the big prize. But now I'm returning to ST/4 which was the composer's first foray into the genre. The piece's title in full is ST/4-1, 080262, shorthand for 'the first piece of stochastic music for four instruments, using calculations made by computer on 8 February 1962'. Here the composer is only partially in control. He chooses or develops an algorithm that weighs the possibilities of random events and links those to musical parameters.  Algorithmic music differs from aleatoric music, which is created by chance-driven processes (like throwing dice or I Ching stalks) without adhering to a strict mathematical logic.

The algorithmic basis of many of Xenakis’ pieces turns them, in his own words, into “a form of composition which is not the object in itself, but an idea in itself, that is to say, the beginnings of a family of compositions”.

James Harley provides an interesting perspective on the emergence of ST/4: "In 1962, having succeeded in obtaining access to the computing facilities at IBM-France, Xenakis ran several trials of his algorithm, producing enough data to create a family of works for different ensembles. Each piece is based upon identical principles, with the various constraining factors being adjusted to fit the particularities of each compositional situation (number of instruments, ranges, etc.). The one exception, interestingly, is ST/4, which derives from the same data as ST/10. The basis for the quartet is the adaptation of the string parts of the larger ensemble, into which additional material from other instruments has been added." 

Harley points out that ST/4 is more than a simple transcription as Xenakis made many changes to accommodate new material into the existing string parts. One might perhaps see ST/4 then as a projection of ST/10 in a lower-dimensional space which inevitably led to loss of information and required adjustments to fit key musical material in the new setting. In doing so, Xenakis shows himself a resourceful composer. Some of the percussion material of the original work was adapted as drumming on the bodies of the string instruments. Harley: "Surely, however, the most incredible adaptation of them all comes in his treatment of a descending chromatic scale in the harp (mm. 222-248). In the translation of the computer data into musical notation, this material was in itself an adaptation of the glissando parameter to the distinct features of the harp. In transcribing it for strings, Xenakis opted to preserve the plucked-string character, trading off from instrument to instrument as the scale falls lower and lower. The range of the harp reaches an octave lower than the cello, and this particular gesture continues to the harp's lowest note. Undaunted, the composer requires the cellist to lower the C string with the tuning peg, retuning for each new note, until it is tuned an octave lower than normal. As anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of string instruments would know, it is treacherously difficult to tune a string onstage in the midst of a demanding performance. As a dramatic gesture, therefore, this manouevre (sic) completely upstages whatever else might be going on around it. Xenakis, however, treats it here as if it were a perfectly ordinary thing for the cellist to do." He concludes: "This audacity highlights an essential characteristic of Xenakis' music. In asking for the impossible from the cellist here, and indeed from the whole quartet in trying to emulate the rhythmic and textural density of an ensemble more than twice its size, Xenakis succeeds in creating a thrillingly intense musical experience for performers and listeners alike. Irvine Arditti, who has played in both versions of the piece, maintains that the quartet is the more successful of the two, simply because of the element of 'risk' that the performers must undergo and communicate in performance."

In an obituary Arditti reflected on his experience of playing the music of Xenakis. In the early 1970s he sought the composer's advice to prepare for the British premier of Mikka: "I had been pondering the very fast glissandi (covering more than three octaves), and told him this was impossible to play. His reply was that I might find it so now, but that in the future I would find a way to do it. Well, Mikka, never got easier, but my understanding of the way to perform Xenakis' music transcended the normal confines of traditional string playing. I was eventually able to understand and give an impression of what he intended. (...) It is still impossible to play the extremely wide, quick glissandi near the beginning, as the distance covered is just too far. A three-octave glissando in an eighth of a second is physically not possible. As an interpreter, one has to make decisions about limitations such as these and almost invent new ways of thinking. (...) Graphic representations of the music may help a string player to understand better the kind of sound Xenakis is aiming for. (...) Xenakis is not a traditional 'musician's composer', in that he comes from a completely other world. This other world has been fascinating for me, and I consider him to be at the forefront of expanding string sonorities in the second part of the twentieth century. Perhaps because of the origins, he is less inclined to be specific about exactly how to execute his music, preferring to leave it to the players to find a way."

So, what are my listening impressions? ST/4 strikes me as a busy piece, an explosive sequence of hard-edged pizzicati, tremolos, glissandi and percussive effects. While textures occasionally loosen up, I hesitate to second Arnold Whittal's description of the piece as revolving around "an extreme contrast between constantly changing durations, dynamics and dynamic patterns, and a far simpler texture which includes a descending chromatic scale with regular note values and a uniform dynamic level." The contrast is there, but it doesn't strike me as providing a reliable ground plan of the piece.

There is no discernible musical process, no way of anticipating what the composer's (or algorithm's) next move will be. You have to listen to it 'in the moment' and deliver yourself to what sounds like an aural picture of Blitzkrieg, with dive bombers, welcomed by ricocheting gunfire, screaming towards their hapless targets. Perhaps it is the sheer energy radiated by the piece that keeps us glued to our seats. The quartet's kinship with the original ST/10 version is unmistakable, but the latter strikes me as mellower and even more conventionally symphonic due to the differentiation of timbres and the more expansive soundstage. Also it strikes me that many individual phrases allotted to instruments found in the symphonic orchestra (clarinet, horn) resonate with my large database of remembered fragments from other modernistic pieces. This creates a hazy simile of an imagined and aborted musical process that in reality isn't there. Returning to the quartet one is struck by the ferocious energy that the members of the Arditti Quartet bring to bear on this piece.

I've also been reflecting about what it tells about me as a listener that I can sit through this piece coolheadedly and even with considerable pleasure. Am I genuinely making sense of this music, or is it just that my long listening experience makes me more or less imperturbable and slightly blasé? At one point I did a lot of travelling, and after a while, I was surprised that I didn't even feel even a tinge of dépaysement when touching down in remote countries such as Mongolia or Gabon. Was it sheer globetrotting experience or did I simply resort to shutting out the foreign elements to keep my composure and focus on the job? To this day I am not able to answer that question.

Sources:

Irvine Arditti (2002) ‘Reflections on performing the string music of Iannis Xenakis’, Contemporary Music Review, 21:2-3, 85-89, DOI: 10.1080/07494460216665. James Harley (1998) ‘The String Quartets of Iannis Xenakis’, Tempo, New Series, No. 203, pp. 2-10. Arnold Whittal (1999) Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, pp. 292-294.