Search - James [1] Dillon, Ed Spanjaard, Nieuw Ensemble :: Dillon: Traumwerk; String Quartet No. 2; Parjunya

James dillon-arditti string quartet

Ian Campbell Mcneill | 01/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"well, it was a foregone conclusion that i would eventually get this disc...so i had already made up my mind that i BETTER like it, haha!



another reviwer somewhere said they'd rather listen to ferneyhough or anyone, and thought dillon was kind of, well...eh...



but i find myself playing this quartet a lot. sure, it has all the goods...sounding like a lot of arditti fare...but i did notice an earthiness and a nature worship aspect going on here...different than ferneyhough's more clinical/laboratory sound. if ferneyhough's in the lab, dillon's in the greenhouse. i feel like he doesn't get much credit, so i will just say that i think this quartet is as good as any other of this high modernist ilk. i haven't heard dillon's no3 on the neos cd with rihm and estrada. dillon sounds like him and jonathan harvey were listening to the same event, but harvey picked up on the contemplation and dillon picked up on the regenerative. i guess this quartet reminds me of the bustling life undulating under leaves in the forest....see, now i'm gonna put it in the cd player now, haha.



oh- so the rest of the album? it compares favorably to similar arditti compilations of ferneyhough, hosokawa, francesconi, and harvey...one quartet, one concerto, two other pieces...look, if i continue, this is just gonna be one big arditti praise-a-thon...i have no real critical ear when it comes to them...though, i must say, the new ivan fedele disc did NOT touch me all that much..it went in the return pile right away, but i have been giveng it sporadic listens...



so many quartets, so little time



so, if you've been thinking about this album...if you have everything else, you will probably end up getting this too,so don't worry, it is by no means the arditti's worst moment or anything...this is echt arditti, up to the standards of the house in my opinion, but i WILL give special mention to this quartet by dillon...it tickled my ears"