Arditti Quartet

häuten – schlitzen – reißen/paramyth 1, 2 & 3
for string quartet (2011-2016)
Clemens Gadenstätter

Nothing could be more stringent – or more breathtaking. In the rigorous space of avant-garde string quartets, no one remains untouched, especially not when the musicians of the British Arditti Quartet, which has been creating legends for forty years, are playing. What is more, a truly challenging triptych can be heard: over the past years, Clemens Gadenstätter, who teaches at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, has composed three twenty-minute movements for string quartet which are conceived as a interconnected cycle.

It premieres at musikprotokoll 2020. That this will not be a particularly cozy hour but truly a rigorous cabinet of horrors for the ear can already be seen in the pictures that served as the three pieces’ inspiration: Titian’s The Flaying of Marsyas, the crucifixion from Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece, and Francis Bacon’s screaming popes.

Clemens Gadenstätter (*1966) studied composition in Vienna and then Stuttgart under Helmut Lachenmann. He teaches at the University of Music Graz as a professor of Analysis, Music Theory, and Composition. Gadenstätter's musical undertaking explores the compositional resynthesis of perception, sensation and feeling. For him, this should bring together the trinity of listening, comprehension, and composition. His recent work concerns: the transformation of acoustically triggered, pre-formed feelings, the notion of the banal, the poly-modality of listening as well as musical iconography. Gadenstätter's work has been commissioned by: The Donaueschingen Festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart, Witten Days for New Chamber Music, Wien Modern, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra,  Musikbiennale Berlin, Salzburg Festspiele, Salzburg Biennale, steirischer herbst, Ultima Oslo, and more.

The Arditti Quartet enjoys a global reputation for its spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music. Several hundred string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974, giving the quartet a firm place in music history. The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features well over 200 CDs. The ensemble has received many prizes for its work, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik several times and three Gramophone Awards. It was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1999.