The Ligeti Quartet
Kings Place, London 

THE LIGETI QUARTET is a British string quartet formed in 2010, named after the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. Comprising Freya Goldmark and Patrick Dawkins on violin, Richard Jones on viola and Val Welbanks on cello, their mission has been to perform ground breaking compositions and to collaborate with experimental artists. 

For this concert the quartet chose a brave range of works by two pioneering American composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros, both involved in minimalism and new electronic composition. 

First up was Riley’s work Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, written in 1969, and here arranged by Richard Jones in 2025. The piece is the B-side of Riley’s 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air. Starting off in a sombre mood, the four instruments worked on a drone based, meditative focus before an electronic pulse backing joined in, triggered by Jones and accented by the violins. As the piece developed the mood lightened, revealing a strong melodic drive, with featured solos, and the electronics working towards a power based church organ held chord, ending in a unison dance-like finale. A fitting tribute to Riley, this year marking the composer’s 90th birthday.