Arditti Quartet / The quartet and stories of the castrati - NOSPR

The Arditti Quartet is a chamber music legend. Half a century ago, the violinist Irvine Arditti invited three friends of his, students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, to perform Krzysztof Penderecki’s String quartet No. 2 together. Since then, the ensemble has premiered hundreds of contemporary pieces, released over 200 albums and traveled all the world with new music. The world premiere of Andrzej Kwieciński’s new composition resonates with this rich history. Engaging a male mezzo-soprano, the artist will bring together the worlds of sounds and meanings of the contemporary quartet, baroque opera, the history of the castrati, and the aesthetics of contemporary drag queens. The piece will be performed in the context of a 20th-century masterpiece by Witold Lutosławski, music by Lucia Dlugoszewski, an American composer with Polish roots who is still little known here, and a piece by James Dillon, the quartet’s collaborator since the 80s. 

Adam Suprynowicz 

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes