THE GUARDIAN, 20/6/2008 --- (...) probably the single most important ensemble in the history of late-20th and early-21st-century music. (...) the Ardittis have been responsible not just for creating a performance practice for the classics of the modernist quartet repertoire (...) but also for resuscitating a genre that was considered old-fashioned before the Ardittis came along. (...) hundreds of specially commissioned quartets and thousands of concerts around the world later, the Ardittis (...) have saved the string quartet.(...) Any Arditti performance is not just an interpretation, but a performance informed by decades of the subtle oral tradition of working with the world's greatest composers. They are living, breathing music history.
THE GUARDIAN, January 2007 --- The Arditti played the six little pieces of Kurtag's Moments Musicaux with fabulous concentration, making every silence speak volumes, but then their command of every challenge this programme threw at them was astonishing.
THE TIMES, 12/4/2005 --- (...) the Ardittis (...) have a hard-earned reputation for playing the most ferociously complex scores of our time. And (...) in their hands, the old sometimes sounds more jarring than scores on which the ink is still wet. (...) the Ardittis sandwiched stupendously testing late-20th-century quartets (...) between Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and Janácek's Quartet No 2, Intimate Letters - two works that, even today, seem to demand more of the quartet medium than four players can provide. (...) For sheer ingenuity, however, both these pieces paled besides Nancarrow's Third Quartet, written for the Ardittis in 1987. (...) Truly a night of mind-expanding sonorities.
THE GUARDIAN, April 2005 --- The world's pre-eminent contemporary music quartet.
STRINGS, October 2004 --- They are the Rolls-Royce of quartets.
THE GUARDIAN, 13/1/2004 --- The Arditti Quartet stole the show with their closing concert. In a stunning programme of Nancarrow, Kurtag, Carter and Ligeti, they fused superlative technique with spellbinding musicianship, at its most moving in the ending of Kurtag's Officium Breve.
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 14/1/2004 --- Finally, it was the turn of the Arditti Quartet to showcase quartets of our time and to take the breath away with their trademark fearlessness and precision.
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 17/7/2004 --- The performances, as always with the Ardittis, sounded exemplary.
THE GUARDIAN, 25/11/2003 --- The association between composer Brian Ferneyhough and the Arditti String Quartet has produced some of the richest chamber music of the past 20 years. For most groups, the complexity of Ferneyough's scores makes them simply inapproachable. But for the Arditti, this music is their lifeblood, and they have single-handedly created a performance tradition for this unique, uncompromising repertoire (...) An Arditti performance is always a powerful sonic experience, and watching the nuances of the interaction between the players adds another layer to their interpretations.
ANDANTE CORP., 7/10/2002 --- Mr. Arditti had made a substantial career playing the edgiest of cutting-edge pieces, as both a soloist and the founder of the quartet that bears his name. Here, in two performances that showcased his formidable technique and his commitment to making music from even the most opaque of scores, Arditti showed why he is like money in the bank for the future of music. The Arditti Quartet played the works with devotion and brilliance, as if each was already an established masterpiece of the canon. For the Arditti, each phrase - each pitch - matters, and it's easy to imagine them inconsolable after the slightest error. Fortunately for all concerned, they will need no consolation from anyone any time soon.
THE GUARDIAN, 24/6/2002 --- It is impossible to overstate the impact of the Arditti Quartet on the development of contemporary chamber music. They have premiered hundreds of works by the masters of musical modernism. The demonstrated their unique authority in three recent works written especially for them.
For further reviews please refer to www.ardittiquartet.com
THE GUARDIAN, January 2007 --- The Arditti played the six little pieces of Kurtag's Moments Musicaux with fabulous concentration, making every silence speak volumes, but then their command of every challenge this programme threw at them was astonishing.
THE TIMES, 12/4/2005 --- (...) the Ardittis (...) have a hard-earned reputation for playing the most ferociously complex scores of our time. And (...) in their hands, the old sometimes sounds more jarring than scores on which the ink is still wet. (...) the Ardittis sandwiched stupendously testing late-20th-century quartets (...) between Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and Janácek's Quartet No 2, Intimate Letters - two works that, even today, seem to demand more of the quartet medium than four players can provide. (...) For sheer ingenuity, however, both these pieces paled besides Nancarrow's Third Quartet, written for the Ardittis in 1987. (...) Truly a night of mind-expanding sonorities.
THE GUARDIAN, April 2005 --- The world's pre-eminent contemporary music quartet.
STRINGS, October 2004 --- They are the Rolls-Royce of quartets.
THE GUARDIAN, 13/1/2004 --- The Arditti Quartet stole the show with their closing concert. In a stunning programme of Nancarrow, Kurtag, Carter and Ligeti, they fused superlative technique with spellbinding musicianship, at its most moving in the ending of Kurtag's Officium Breve.
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 14/1/2004 --- Finally, it was the turn of the Arditti Quartet to showcase quartets of our time and to take the breath away with their trademark fearlessness and precision.
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 17/7/2004 --- The performances, as always with the Ardittis, sounded exemplary.
THE GUARDIAN, 25/11/2003 --- The association between composer Brian Ferneyhough and the Arditti String Quartet has produced some of the richest chamber music of the past 20 years. For most groups, the complexity of Ferneyough's scores makes them simply inapproachable. But for the Arditti, this music is their lifeblood, and they have single-handedly created a performance tradition for this unique, uncompromising repertoire (...) An Arditti performance is always a powerful sonic experience, and watching the nuances of the interaction between the players adds another layer to their interpretations.
ANDANTE CORP., 7/10/2002 --- Mr. Arditti had made a substantial career playing the edgiest of cutting-edge pieces, as both a soloist and the founder of the quartet that bears his name. Here, in two performances that showcased his formidable technique and his commitment to making music from even the most opaque of scores, Arditti showed why he is like money in the bank for the future of music. The Arditti Quartet played the works with devotion and brilliance, as if each was already an established masterpiece of the canon. For the Arditti, each phrase - each pitch - matters, and it's easy to imagine them inconsolable after the slightest error. Fortunately for all concerned, they will need no consolation from anyone any time soon.
THE GUARDIAN, 24/6/2002 --- It is impossible to overstate the impact of the Arditti Quartet on the development of contemporary chamber music. They have premiered hundreds of works by the masters of musical modernism. The demonstrated their unique authority in three recent works written especially for them.
For further reviews please refer to www.ardittiquartet.com
Photo: Philippe Gontier
Photo: Philippe Gontier
Photo: Philippe Gontier