Irvine Arditti

Irvine Arditti
Arditti at a concert with the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra (14 June 2014)
Background information
Born8 February 1953
London, United Kingdom
GenresClassical
OccupationViolinist
InstrumentViolin
Years active1974–present

Irvine Arditti (born 8 February 1953) is a British violinist, as well as the leader[1] and founder of the Arditti Quartet.

Biography

Arditti attended the Central Foundation Boys' School in London[2] before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 where he studied with Clarence Myerscough and Manoug Parikian. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left the orchestra in 1980 to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a student.

In 1988 he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his distinguished work. The Arditti Quartet was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1999 for 'lifetime achievement' in music. An honorary fellowship followed from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and in 2014 was awarded an honorary doctorate to the University off Huddersfield. In 2017 he received the Charles Cros Grand Prix in honorem, which is for lifetime achievement.

Arditti has been responsible for having given the world premières of a number of large scale works specially written for him. These include Iannis Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Toshio Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Brian Ferneyhough's Terrain, Luca Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, James Dillon's Vernal Showers, Jonathan Harvey's Scena, Brice Pauset's Vita Nova, Roger Reynolds Aspiration and Salvatore Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble.

He has also been responsible for the creation of many solo works including both of Ferneyhough's solo violin works, Intermedio and Unsichtbare Farben. He was responsible for inspiring John Cage to complete his Freeman Etudes giving the first complete performance of them in 1991[3][4] and also for inspiring other composers in several pieces as Pascal Dusapin and Roger Reynolds.[5]

He has appeared as soloist with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles which include the Bayerische Rundfunk, the BBC Symphony, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Ensemble Modern, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Paris, the Residentie Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Asko Ensemble, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the London Sinfonietta, the Nieuw Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Schoenberg Ensemble. He has performed in most major concert halls and music festival throughout the world. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular György Ligeti,[6] Henri Dutilleux,[7] and Xenakis.[8] He has recorded solo works widely, in more 30 albums, as well as having made more than 200 with the Arditti quartet.[9]

His recording of Luciano Berio's violin Sequenza, on Mode Records won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for 2007 and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008.[10] In 2009 Arditti was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.[11]

In 2014 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in the UK.[12]

Arditti is married to the prominent Mexican composer Hilda Paredes.[13] They reside in London. Irvine's son, Jake Arditti, is a noted countertenor.[14]

References

  1. ^ Service, Tom (20 June 2008). "Nothing is impossible if you rehearse it enough". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Alumni". Central Foundation Boys' School. 2013. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  3. ^ "Irvine Arditti Profile". Mode Records. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  4. ^ "Irvine Arditti Repertoire List". Arditti Quartet. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  5. ^ "Repertoire – Irvine Arditti". Ardittiquartet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  6. ^ "Two views on a showcase of sensitive transcriptions". Gramophone. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  7. ^ International, Bill Kenny Seen and Heard. "Edinburgh International Festival 2009 (22) – Beethoven, Dutilleux, Webern, and Schoenberg:Barbara Hannigan (soprano), Arditti Quartet. Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 1.9.2009 (MB)".
  8. ^ Matossian, Nouritza (1982). "Xenakis at 60". Tempo (142): 38–40. JSTOR 944816. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Arditti String Quartet". DRAM. Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  10. ^ "Biography – Irvine Arditti". www.ownvoice.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Ledamöter". Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien (in Swedish). Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  12. ^ "Celebrated violinist receives honorary doctorate". University of Huddersfield. July 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  13. ^ Remarks of Irvine Arditti on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now program, 30 January 2010
  14. ^ "Jake Arditti | Artists | English National Opera".