The Arditti Quartet, known world-wide for its spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th-century music, will livestream a performance from the Hellerau European Centre for the Arts in Dresden, Germany, on Aug. 22 as part of its spring 2020 residency in UB’s Creative Arts Initiative.

A link to the performance, which will begin at 12:30 p.m. eastern time, will be posted on the CAI’s website.

The concert by the renowned quartet will be its first live performance since COVID-19 travel restrictions interrupted tour and travel schedules.

No string quartet has had a greater impact on contemporary music than the Arditti Quartet. For nearly 50 years, its members, through various lineup changes, have worked to reimagine, with virtuosity and creativity, the potential resting in the string quartet’s instrumentation.

Quartet members have introduced new music, championed emerging composers and have consistently moved, with astonishing originality, the shifting boundaries of expectation and possibility. The quartet can, in a single moment, move from intensity to intimacy in ways that soar over preconceived notions of melody, harmony, tempo and rhythm.

The quartet’s program will include:

• Elliott Carter - String Quartet No. 5 (1995).
• UB faculty member David Felder’s Third Face (1988).
• Harrison Birtwistle - The Tree of Strings (2007).

The past few months represent a rare respite from what is usually a breathless touring and recording pace for the quartet. Its calendar is ordinarily filled with concert and recording dates through nearly every week of the year.

Its return to the performance stage and the accompanying live stream is a rare opportunity for listeners to hear the quartet after months of idle creative energy.