For an archetypally classical genre that peaked nearly two centuries ago, the new string quartet remains in surprisingly rude health. Much credit can go to London's Arditti Quartet, who have been championing new string music for nearly 40 years; New York's JACK Quartet are their next-generation counterparts. The playing throughout this programme was excellent.
The four works, all strong and all new to London, made much of exploring the instruments' sonic possibilities; the usual, classical techniques of playing were so sidelined that when, in Alex Mincek's String Quartet No 3, the JACK Quartet's second violinist played a note with obvious vibrato, it leapt out. In Mincek's work, rhythmic, mechanical squeaks jostle with the slithery noise of bows being brushed up and down the strings.
The opening work, James Clarke's combative 2012-S for two string quartets, was the most obviously striking. Effects are used almost to saturation point before the music moves to another episode; sometimes the players seem to try to obliterate each other with violently swooping slides, evoking nothing so much as an alien shootout. It starts with a huge, clustered chord that lingers on almost inaudibly, the players daring us to notice the tiny squeaks as the bow catches the string; as a way of demanding attentive listening in the opening seconds of a concert, it certainly worked.
The Arditti's own contribution was Michael Pelzel's … vers le vent …, a three-movement work in a slightly more playful vein, following sighing, breathing noises in the slow movement with a scurrying, gusty finale.
Mauro Lanza's Bruegel-inspired Der Kampf Zwischen Karneval und Fasten is coloured by Lanza's fascination with toy instruments – the eight players have to set off bells, bird whistles and even whoopee cushions with their feet. If that makes the piece sound frivolous, it isn't – the toy sounds blend into the string noise. And even Carnival sounded serious. Maybe the Wigmore Hall air isn't easily tempted inside whoopee cushions, but here they sounded more like quiet drums than farts.
• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using #GdnGig
