Composition Commissions issued to Younghi Pagh-Paan, Harrison Birtwistle, Benedict Mason and Mark Andre

Arditti String Quartet, London, Great Britain

Since its founding in 1974 the Arditti Quartet has taken the development of the genre of string quartet through the 20^th century and into the 21^st century. Its broad repertoire and large choice of premieres is continually extended by a wide variety of composition commissions issued by the quartet. In some 2000 concerts until now, around 7400 were performed, including more than 600 premieres. With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation 2015 will see commissions being issued to Younghi Pagh-Paan, Harrison Birtwistle, Benedict Mason and Mark Andre. Pagh-Paan has already dealt with the composition for a string quartet for 25 years now. Harrison Birtwistle is writing for the second time now for the Arditti Quartet – this time a roughly 25-minute piece. Over time Benedict Mason has developed an attachment to the Arditti Quartet – one he fosters in this way for very few artists. With the commission the Arditti Quartet wishes to embark on the “Mason adventure” once again. To mark the anniversary of the Arditti Quartet, for the first time Mark Andre has written an entire short piece for string quartet that is now to serve as the point of departure for a large collection of miniatures for these four instruments.

November 6, 2015
Wigmore Hall London

January 2016
Cité Paris

April/May 2017
Witten

October 2017
Strasbourg

Further Information:
www.ardittiquartet.com