Arditti Quartet

Appearances, the Arditti String Quartet reminded us Monday evening, can be deceiving. The British ensemble, playing in shirt-sleeves, looked callow, casual and disinterested. Their playing, though, proved deeply involved and involving. The four--Irvine Arditti and David Alberman, violins; Levine Andrade, viola; Rohan de Saram, cello--could sound coarse at times, but never uncommitted.

January should have been a big month for Luciano Berio in Los Angeles, with the unveiling of his new orchestration of "Coronation of Poppea" for the Los Angeles Opera.

Compelling programs performed splendidly are what we now expect from the 28-year-old Arditti Quartet, a regular visitor to local concert venues. The British-based ensemble--violinists Irvine Arditti and Graeme Jennings, violist Dov Scheindlin and cellist Rohan de Saram--returned Sunday afternoon, this time to the Coleman Concerts in Pasadena, and delivered a thrilling program, exquisitely played.

Compelling programs performed splendidly are what we now expect from the 28-year-old Arditti Quartet, a regular visitor to local concert venues. The British-based ensemble--violinists Irvine Arditti and Graeme Jennings, violist Dov Scheindlin and cellist Rohan de Saram--returned Sunday afternoon, this time to the Coleman Concerts in Pasadena, and delivered a thrilling program, exquisitely played.

Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus played host on Sunday afternoon to those masters of the modern idiom, London's Arditti String Quartet. The Arditti delivers its demanding goods with the elegance of tone and technical finish that other, more tradition-oriented groups would provide for Mozart, Brahms or Bartok.

As might be expected, the Arditti Quartet brings a program laden with premieres to its Monday Evening Concert tonight. The agenda at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art boasts the world premiere of Dorrance Stalvey's first string quartet, the U.S. premiere of Gyorgy Kurtag's "Officium Breve in Memoriam Andreae Szervansky" and the local premiere of Conlon Nancarrow's Quartet No. 3.

Five minutes before the Arditti Quartet was scheduled to appear on the stage of the Leo S. Bing Theater on Monday night, first violinist Irvine Arditti was sitting at an outdoor table in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art plaza casually smoking a cigar and shooting the breeze. He seemed in no hurry to get on stage.

January should have been a big month for Luciano Berio in Los Angeles, with the unveiling of his new orchestration of "Coronation of Poppea" for the Los Angeles Opera.

Composer Bryan Ferneyhough's opinions are as uncompromising as the astringent idiom of his compositions. The expatriate British musician, who joined UC San Diego's music faculty last fall, has few good words to say about that country's music establishment, even though the London-based Arditti Quartet will perform one of his works this evening at UCSD's Mandeville Auditorium.

Elliott Carter's recent String Quartet No. 5 is a marvel. For some years now, the American composer, who turns 90 in December, has been modeling his very brainy music on the brain itself. In the brief notes he supplied for the score, completed three years ago for the Arditti String Quartet, Carter notes that, in the real world, music is made in a fashion similar to the way brain makes thoughts. Chamber musicians in rehearsal, for instance, work in a fragmented fashion.

Five minutes before the Arditti Quartet was scheduled to appear on the stage of the Leo S. Bing Theater on Monday night, first violinist Irvine Arditti was sitting at an outdoor table in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art plaza casually smoking a cigar and shooting the breeze. He seemed in no hurry to get on stage.

Elliott Carter's recent String Quartet No. 5 is a marvel. For some years now, the American composer, who turns 90 in December, has been modeling his very brainy music on the brain itself. In the brief notes he supplied for the score, completed three years ago for the Arditti String Quartet, Carter notes that, in the real world, music is made in a fashion similar to the way brain makes thoughts. Chamber musicians in rehearsal, for instance, work in a fragmented fashion.

It's not the usual bunch of suspects, and it never will be. Other string quartets may play some 20th century music, usually sandwiched between melodious 19th century works, but the Arditti String Quartet exists solely to play contemporary music. The 19th century, except for one thorny work, be damned.

Six groups will play here next season under the combined auspices of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Laguna Chamber Music Society. Four of them will be making their first appearances for the societies, and one--the Brentano String Quartet--will feature the winner of the 1997 Van Cliburn Competition, which takes place in June. The Brentano quartet will play Feb. 24. The Tchaikovsky Piano Trio (Nov. 24), the Paris Piano Trio (Jan.

Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus played host on Sunday afternoon to those masters of the modern idiom, London's Arditti String Quartet. The Arditti delivers its demanding goods with the elegance of tone and technical finish that other, more tradition-oriented groups would provide for Mozart, Brahms or Bartok.

The Ahmanson Atrium at the L.A. County Museum of Art, a three-story high chimney of a space, lined with hard, polished surfaces, would be a perilous venue for many musical situations. But the natural reverberation enhanced an evening of sonic explorations when the Arditti String Quartet arrived here Monday for a performance sponsored by the Independent Composers Assn.

Not for the Arditti String Quartet are the vernacular blandishments of postmodernism, mixed-media spectaculars or attention-getting costumes. Instead, the self-effacing British ensemble concentrates on some of the world's toughest music, usually in premiere performances. Such was the case Sunday afternoon, when the Arditti introduced a dizzyingly diverse group of recent European quartets to a sparse audience at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA.

It was a night of uncommon pleasures, the latest Monday Evening Concert. Britain's Arditti Quartet gave performances of contemporary music--in Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art--that shouldn't be soon forgotten. A source of constant pleasure throughout the evening was the Arditti's impeccable virtuosity. To hear this quartet play contemporary music is to know that most other such performances are mere approximations. The program was as impressive as the playing.