Rhythmic invention The string quartets of David Arditti, reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD Menelik    CDR

David Arditti is a London-based composer, born in 1964, with a substantial list of works to his credit, many of which are vocal and choral settings of British and American poets. His music, particularly as represented by these Quartets, is extremely conservative, a latter-day contemporary of the rich crop of English composers flourishing in the 1880s, Sullivan, Smyth, Somervell, resourceful within its range of experience, technically accomplished and pleasing enough to hear, though offering no appreciably stimulating challenge today to either listener or player.

His Quartet No 1 is Op 7 followed several groups of songs, a Requiem and a Comic Overture for orchestra, and suggests Dvorák in three short and rather sombre movements before a bright finale [listen -- track 4, 0:13-1:05]. The best of Quartet No 2 (Op 31) is a set of variations on 'an invented folk-song' not too far distant from Thomas Moore's famous Last Rose [listen -- track 8, 0:00-0:40], and of the six variations, the fourth is an appealing and clever bit of rhythmic invention [listen -- track 8, 4:34-5:29].

It is to be hoped that Arditti's sound technical foundation in composition will soon lead to the exploration of more courageous harmonic and structural horizons, for whilst there may be a transient audience for his work as it is, it needs greater bold purpose to hold attention.

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