Irvine Arditti – Opening concert

The opening concert of this edition marks a milestone in the history of the festival. Having Irvine Arditti open the programme is an opportunity we have not previously been able to achieve: we are talking about one of the performers who has done the most for the music of our time, and a name inseparable from a significant part of the violin repertoire written over the last five decades.

This is complemented by an equally exceptional circumstance: the presence at the festival of three of the composers included in the programme. Hilda Paredes, one of the most representative living composers of new music, will be present with In Memoriam Thomas Kakuska; Joan Magrané, a Catalan composer with a major international career, with Aus; and Mateu Malondra Flaquer with Modular Violin, a piece that will receive its premiere at this recital. The programme is completed by Il piccolo catalogo dei sospiri by Berislav Šipuš and Kadosh by Sarah Nemtsov.

The fact that composers and performer share the same space with the audience turns the concert into a unique landmark: an open conversation about how a new work comes into being and how it is transmitted.

In addition to his legendary career as first violin of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has also brought many works to life as a soloist. He was born in London in 1953 and, at the age of sixteen, entered the Royal Academy of Music. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and, two years later, was appointed co-concertmaster at the age of twenty-five. He left the orchestra in 1980 to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet, which he had formed while still a student.

Irvine Arditti has premiered a plethora of large-scale works written specifically for him. These include Dox Orkh by Xenakis and Landscape III by Hosokawa, for violin and orchestra, as well as Terrain by Ferneyhough, Riti Neurali and Body Electric by Francesconi, Vernal Showers by Dillon, Scena by Jonathan Harvey, Vita Nova by Pauset, Aspiration by Reynolds and Le Stagioni Artificiali by Sciarrino, all for violin and instrumental ensemble.

Violin recital
Programme:

– Berislav Šipuš — Il piccolo catalogo dei sospiri (c. 7 min.)
– Sarah Nemtsov — Kadosh (c. 16 min.)
– Hilda Paredes — In Memoriam Thomas Kakuska (c. 10 min.)
– Joan Magrané — Aus (c. 7 min.)
– Mateu Malondra Flaquer — Modular Violin (c. 23 min.)