Our friendship with Irvine Arditti and his quartet began in 2016 with a concert featuring works by John Zorn. Behind the scenes there was an event that brought us together and led to our years-long friendship. Irvine himself will tell it the best: "I was happy to make a bet with the young curator of the Sacrum Profanum festival. I don't remember exactly what the bet was all about. The important thing was that I won, and that had its consequences. We had to return to the festival a year later and play works by Krzysztof’s dream composers. Once I got over those bad dreams, I began to enjoy performing music by composers I had never even heard of before. I faced the challenge of performing stylistically diverse music in a convincing way. That is why I founded the Arditti Quartet 47 years ago. It might seem like a long time, but even though I have been involved in the contemporary music scene longer than others, thanks to my repeated visits to the Sacrum Profanum Festival, I've gained a completely new and refreshing perspective on Polish music.” Since that bet, the legendary quartet has been a regular guest of the Festival – and this year, the story continues.

In 2019, while strolling the streets of Kazimierz in search of good coffee, Irvine Arditti, talked about the interesting challenges he has to face thanks to the Sacrum Profanum and said that he hoped that one day his ensemble will have the opportunity to show the gems from its own repertoire to the audiences in Krakow. Krzysztof Pietraszewski eagerly agreed to this proposal – thanks to that, this year we can invite you to a special anniversary concert together with the Arditti Quartet. We will celebrate the 47 years and a half of the quartet with an exceptional double concert in Krakow, featuring compositions for the Adritti, as well as pieces they consider the most important and the closest to their hearts – all in the best and most outstanding interpretations. The names of the composers alone – Neuwirth, Saunders, Paredes, Ligeti, Xenakis and Lachenmann – serve as the best invitation to an unforgettable evening with the best of the best in the world of contemporary music!

György Ligeti – Quartet No. 2 (1968) 22’
Olga Neuwirth – in the realms of the unreal (2009, rev. 2011) 18’
Rebecca Saunders – Fletch (2012) 15’
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Iannis Xenakis – Tetras (1983) 15’
Hilda Paredes – Hacia und Bitácora Capilar (2014) 9’ (Polish premiere)
Helmut Lachenmann – Quartet No. 3 Grido (2000-01) 26’

Artists:
Arditti Quartet