Arditti Quartet & Claron McFadden (Sopraan)

The Arditti Quartet has been the undisputed world leader for several decades. They played world premieres by Stockhausen, Ligeti, Cage, Lachenmann and almost every contemporary composer. Together with the American soprano Claron McFadden, they form a dream star cast. This time no contemporary music, but avant-garde from the early 20th century. Schoenberg dedicated the Second Quartet (1908) to the woman who broke his heart. In this music he transcends the soap opera that was his life in a grand way: while he changed music history, his wife had an affair with the neighbor. It could well be Schoenberg's saddest piece: an elegiac farewell to a woman and tonality. Classical harmony is completely omitted in Anton Webern's crushing Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett (1910). Finally, Arditti also plays Bartók's Third String Quartet (1927). This is considered one of the most intense fifteen minutes in music history, in which Bartók managed to condense his musical ideas into an unprecedented abstraction.

Arditti Quartet: Irvine Arditti (violin), Ashot Sarkissjan (violin), Ralf Ehlers (viola), Lucas Fels (cello)