Arditti Quartet

Even after a good 40 years, the Arditti Quartet remains amazingly vigorous. Something that it undoubtedly owes to its many joint ventures with young composers. This quartet never looks for new works in the repertoire. The works are written specially for them, and not by just any old composers. Philippe Manoury for example. After three string quartets he is continuing his exploration of the endless sound potential of the Arditti players. And Harrison Birtwistle! In his latest quartet, the four string players confront each other with daring, conflicting rhythms. Compared to these two avant-garde works, Ligetti's Second String Quartet, from 1968, seems positively old hat. But just try excluding it - the grins on the faces of the players reveals it best: Ligeti's cutting humour still leaves no one unmoved.