Performer: Irvine Arditti

Irvine Arditti is turning 60 this year, but the real landmark perhaps comes next year, when his eponymous string quartet turns 40. The astonishing amount of good they have done contemporary music in this time deserves a ton of celebration in 2014.

Pour le cinquantième anniversaire de leur formation, les Arditti sont restés fidèles à eux-mêmes, avec trois nouvelles créations mondiales et une interprétation magistrale de Grido d’Helmut Lachenmann.

For five decades, Irvine Arditti has been at the forefront of new music for string quartet. Ahead of concerts at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Arditti talks about his many collaborations with composers – including a long friendship with Toshio Hosokawa.