The Arditti Quartet: 40 Years Young, Barbican (Milton Court)

This very special all-day event, split into three concerts, sees the Arditti Quartet celebrate their 40th anniversary with performances of no less than 16 string quartets. For those unfamiliar with the Arditti Quartet, they are simply unparalleled when it comes to the interpretation and performance of late-20th century music and contemporary music. 

Led by the legendary Irvine Arditti, the quartet possess an extraordinary level of virtuosity – and, with an extensive repertoire of extended techniques, are capable of creating some truly remarkable sounds. They are also renowned for working closely with the composer of each piece they perform, so it is guaranteed that each interpretation will be strongly aligned with the composer’s intentions. 

The programme itself reads like a “greatest hits” of contemporary string quartet repertoire, including Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 2, Lachenmann’s Grido, Xenakis’s Tetras, Carter’s String Quartet No. 5, and Harvey’s String Quartet No. 1. There are also four premieres from Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Hilda Paredes, Brice Paucet, and James Clarke. 

Clarke’s new quartet is a particularly exciting prospect. His previous two quartets, both written for and premiered by the Ardittis, are showstoppers – full of the kind of violence and high drama that the quartet execute so well. We are also looking forward to Lachenmann’s masterpiece, Grido. For those unfamiliar with his music, Lachenmann’s pieces are best described as dense sonic tapestries woven from unfamiliar sounds that are achieved through various unconventional playing techniques. For Lachenmann, no part of an instrument is invalid, so expect to hear all manner of knocking, rubbing, and scraping. His recent work (including Grido) has combined this approach with a rich and expressive harmonic language, and we think it is his finest music yet. 

Ideally, there would be space here to tell you why every single piece in this programme is utterly unmissable, but we know you have things to do and places to be, so just take our word for it. You simply cannot forgo an event like this.