Classical musicians need to be seen to be believed, or at the
very least, even satisfyingly appreciated.
This was the driving force behind the Arditti Quartet’s
virtuoso concert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Monday
night. Sure, the pieces would sound interesting on recording, but
when performed live, they burst with bustling intensity. It’s
the aural equivalent of seeing a movie on the big screen.
In a break from traditional concert programming, the Arditti
Quartet opened with Beethoven’s masterpiece “Grosse
Fuge,” as opposed to making the audience wait for it. It was
a calculated move on the part of the Arditti Quartet, if not a bit
risky because those interested strictly in the Beethoven piece
could leave at intermission.
The “Grosse Fuge,” with its banging contrapuntal
melodic explosions, was so strange for its time that Beethoven took
it out of its original context in a longer piece to make it
independent. The Arditti Quartet pulled it off easily.
Historically, Beethoven marks the beginning of many musical
movements, and the Arditti Quartet followed the “Grosse
Fuge” with pieces that continued the composer’s
experimentation.
The next few pieces all came from the late 20th Century, but
share similarly austere textures. Toru Takemitsu’s
“Rocking Mirror Daybreak” had the quartet’s two
violinists, Irvine Arditti and Graeme Jennings, square off in a
musical conversation.
Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza XIV” was the most
visual piece. There was a delightful introduction of cellist Rohan
de Saram using one hand to tap the cello’s wood and the other
to tap the strings to sound like drums accompanying a guitar (this
had to be seen to be appreciated). Unfortunately, Berio’s
piece was all downhill afterward. The later sections, which
involved more traditional bowing, were performed astutely though
they never reached the same joy of the opening. Solo cellist Saram,
however, did extract stunning cat screeches from his
instrument.
Iannis Xenakis liked to base his music on complex mathematical
calculations (he was an architect as well), but when the Arditti
Quartet played “Ikhoor,” it was clear that this piece
is “intuitive,” as Xenakis called it. The piece builds
with distinct textures and a barrage of trembling, gliding and
squeaky harmonics. The musical shape was so transparent and
engaging that the various effects of both sight and sound were
grabbing and meaningful.
Helmut Lachenmann’s “Grido” shared
Xenakis’ strategy although it was less successful. Indeed,
from the composer’s pretentious program notes, you should
have expected a dud.
Luckily for the Arditti Quartet, Lachenmann is a much better
composer than he is a writer. Distinguishing features of this piece
included the amazingly soft rumblings of unorthodox string playing
and the loud creaking sound of scratching the bow on the strings
like fingernails on a chalkboard. “Grido” evoked the
stark landscape of a distant planet.
The music of this concert deserves to be played as competently
as the Arditti Quartet played it. Indeed, this music and the
colorful, difficult performance techniques were written to be seen,
to be experienced in the tunnel vision of a concert hall and to be
enjoyed. While not music fit for the casual classical music lover,
it succeeds at expanding the sensorium.