Synopsis
on the occasion of the award of the Siemens Culture PrizeRadio essay by Uli Aumüller
"I'll play anything", Irvine Arditti once said, a good two decades ago, "on condition that good music comes out of it". And the composers took him at his word, gave free rein to their imagination - and presented the quartet from England with scores that would have been rejected as unplayable by the time-honoured quartet institutions. But that was not enough for Arditti to keep his promise (exclusively in the rest of 20th century music), to set new standards in terms of quality and instrumental technique, both as a soloist and in quartet playing, and thus to exert a decisive influence on the aesthetic development of the genre - no, the Arditti Quartet has also broken all records in terms of quantity, as if it were a matter of keeping pace as musicians with computer technology and the development of industrial mass production. The ensemble's repertoire list includes over 500 pieces, and they have recorded more than 80 CDs. In music circles they are regarded as the model of precision and efficiency.
Uli Aumüller took an in-depth look at the "phenomenon" that is the Arditti Quartet on the occasion of their 25th anniversary and the awarding of the Siemens Culture Prize.
Manuskript der Sendung
Interviews
Interviews mit Anstreichungen
Manuskript handschriftlich
Sendemanuskript mit handschriftliche Bemerkungen
