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The Kronos Quartet, which revolutionized what a chamber-music group could be, performs at Tanglewood next week. (Jay Blakesberg/file 2005) |
Classical Notes
The music of Kronos knows no boundaries
On its MySpace page, the Kronos Quartet describes itself as "experimental/classical/other" - and it's in the "other" where lies the essence of the group's achievement. When violinist David Harrington formed the group in 1973, the idea of a string quartet focusing almost exclusively on living composers was implausible. But a string quartet dressing mod, using video and lighting designs, and covering Hendrix tunes? Unthinkable.
Kronos did that and more, years before it became de rigueur. The quartet revolutionized what a chamber-music group could be, and it wasn't just the hip appearance. Kronos is responsible for bringing into being hundreds of pieces, among them seminal works by Morton Feldman, Henryk Górecki, Steve Reich, and Osvaldo Golijov. They essentially created their own avant-garde.
Sustaining that forward direction is an ongoing, full-time job for the San Francisco-based group, which visits Tanglewood next week for the first time in years. "Right now I'm in the corner of the Oakland airport and I'm looking at a big bag of CDs that I brought on this trip," says Harrington by phone, referring to a portion of the constant stream of new music that comes his way.
As he runs through a long list of recent, current, and future Kronos projects, it becomes clear that Harrington's musical curiosity remains undimmed after 35 years. A few months ago the ensemble toured with Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; a few days ago they were assembling new pieces with Azeri singer Alim Qasimov. There are collaborations that involve performers of the rubab (an Afghan instrument that resembles a lute) and Ethiopia's begena (which resembles a lyre).
And then there's the fence piece.
Harrington discovered an Australian composer named Jon Rose who's been making music by bowing fences around the world - Australia, Israel, the US-Mexico border. "I happened to hear a recording of their fences and I realized that I wanted Kronos to bring this image of turning a fence into a musical experience." Their collaboration will premiere in 2009.
"I'm kind of on fire right at this moment," he says when he finally pauses for breath. "It's an incredible time for our music.
"In this bag, I've got music from China, Indonesia, all over the Middle East," he continues, returning to his listening assignments. "It's amazing the way music is flourishing in our time. In spite of all the things we read about every day in the newspaper, there's something happening that is so worthwhile and worth celebrating. And that's what I want Kronos to do: to really celebrate the time that we're in and what can be a part of the texture of a musical experience."
The Tanglewood program is a typically world- and genre-spanning affair, beginning with the quartet's arrangement of an Iraqi song called "Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me." ("Ever since Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld decided to invade Iraq, I've been trying to find Iraqi music that's right for us to play.") There's also music from Iran and India, a version of a song by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, selections from John Zorn's "The Dead Man," and Reich's "Triple Quartet."
"We were trying to think of how we can update our audience at Tanglewood with some of the music we haven't played there before," Harrington says. "There's over 650 pieces that have been written for Kronos. And I guess I feel like my responsibility is to make it more and more difficult for us to choose what to play."
As he gets ready to board his plane, he mentions the Reich piece, which is the composer's most recent for Kronos. "We get something new from him about every 10 years," Harrington says. When it is suggested that, for the good of minimalism, the group will have to stay together for at least a few more decades, he chuckles. "We're just getting started, man."
Thursday at Ozawa Hall; 888-266-1200, www.tanglewood.org
Strange toys
Speaking of Kronos, Joan Jeanrenaud was the group's cellist for 20 years. She left 10 years ago to devote more time to solo projects, the most recent of which is a CD called "Strange Toys" (Talking House Records). All the compositions are her own, and many feature electronics and multiple loops of Jeanrenaud's instrument. It's an absorbing album, and also a strangely elegiac one; even the collaborations with other musicians have a solitary, trancelike atmosphere about them.
New Lyric Opera director
Boston Lyric Opera has announced the appointment of Esther Nelson as the organization's new general and artistic director, replacing longtime general director Janice Mancini Del Sesto. Nelson was until recently a management consultant to various arts organizations, and was also general director and CEO of Glimmerglass Opera from 1996 to 2002. Her tenure begins on Sept. 2.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
