Albums

Georg Friedrich Haas
Ein Schattenspiel / String Quartets No. 4 & No. 7

NEOS 12006
February 2021

Wolfgang Jacobi 125
Live @ Megève Festival Savoy Truffle

NEOS 11818
December 2018

Rebecca Saunders, Bernhard Gander, Martin Smolka, James Dillon, Franck Bedrossian, Martin Jaggi, Georg Friedrich Haas
Donaueschinger Musiktage 2016

NEOS 11716-17
October 2017

Barden, Barrett, Becker, Billone, Brün, Cage, Carrillo, Eloy, Erickson, Estrada, Evangelisti, Fritsch, Gentilucci, Grosskopf, Hoban, Hoffmann, Ishii, Ives, Jelinek, Johnston, Jungheinrich, Kounadis, Lauck, Lehman, von Lilienstern, Lim, Marchetti, Moguillansky, Poppe, Pousseur, Prins, Radulescu, Reudenbach, Riehm, Rzewski, Wielecki, Xenakis
Darmstadt Aural Documents · Box 3 · Ensembles

NEOS 11230
March 2016

Christian Ofenbauer
Streichquartette 1997-2011

NEOS 11513-14
March 2015

Ondřej Adámek, Aaron Cassidy, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Vinko Globokar, Georg Friedrich Haas, Philippe Manouri, Alberto Posadas, Simon Steen-Andersen, Marco Stroppa, Ivan Wyschnegradsky
Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010

NEOS 11114-17
October 2011

Martino Traversa
Manhattan Bridge

NEOS 11023
August 2010

Ole-Henrik Moe, Saed Haddad, Wolfgang Rihm, Julio Estrada
Donaueschinger Musiktage 2006 Vol. 1

NEOS 10724
September 2007

Erhard Grosskopf
String Quartets Nos. 1–3

NEOS 10706
May 2007

The ARDITTI QUARTET enjoys a world-wide reputation for their spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music. Many hundreds of string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by first violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974. Many of these works have left a permanent mark on 20th century repertoire and have given the Arditti Quartet a firm place in music history. World premieres of quartets by composers such as Adès, Andriessen, Aperghis, Birtwistle, Britten, Cage, Carter, Denisov, Dillon, Dufourt, Dusapin, Fedele, Ferneyhough, Francesconi, Gubaidulina, Guerrero, Harvey, Hosokawa, Kagel, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Maderna, Manoury, Nancarrow, Reynolds, Rihm, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Stockhausen and Xenakis and hundreds more show the wide range of music in the Arditti Quartet’s repertoire. The ensemble believes that close collaboration with composers is vital to the process of interpreting modern music and therefore attempts to work with every composer it plays. The players’ commitment to educational work is indicated by their master classes and workshops for young performers and composers all over the world.

The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features over 200 CDs. 42 CDs were released as part of the ensemble’s series on Naïve Montaigne. This series set the trend, by presenting numerous contemporary composer features, recorded in their presence as well as the first digital recordings of the complete Second Viennese School’s chamber music for strings. The quartet has recorded for more than 20 other CD labels and together this CD collection is the most extensive available of quartet literature in the last 40 years. To name just a few, Berio, Cage, Carter, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Nono, Rihm, the complete chamber music of Xenakis and Stockhausen’s infamous Helicopter Quartet. Some of the most recent releases are with the French company Aeon and include profiles of Harvey, Dusapin, Birtwistle and Gerhard as well as Ferneyhough’s complete quartets and trios.

Over the past 30 years, the ensemble has received many prizes for its work. They have won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik several times and the Gramophone Award for the best recording of contemporary music in 1999 (Elliott Carter) and 2002 (Sir Harrison Birtwistle). In 2004 they were awarded the “Coup de Cœur” prize by the Academie Charles Cros in France for their exceptional contribution to the dissemination of contemporary music. The prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize was awarded to them in 1999 for “lifetime achievement” in music. They remain to this day, the only ensemble ever to receive it. The complete archive of the Arditti Quartet is housed in the Sacher Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.