Charismatic Kronos quartet and more

Putting into words the experience of a live performance by the world-renowned Kronos Quartet is not easy for the simple reason that it unique in every way.

It is innovative and contemporary in the works chosen to be performed and also inimitable as to how they are interpreted. Apart from Steve Reich, I had not listened to any other works by the chosen composers before, many of whom created the work for the Kronos to play.

Although the basic format is what Papa Haydn would easily recognise as his own beloved string quartet – David Harrington first violin, John Sherba second violin, Hank Dutt viola and Jeffrey Ziegler ‘cello – he would have surely been mystified by the conglomeration of strange equipment attached to the music stands.

These electronic instruments transformed the time-honoured string quartet sound into what we have come to understand are contemporary sounds, just like in previous centuries composers devised Chinese or Turkish sounds that may have not been Chinese or Turkish at all.

I have seen an 18th-century fortepiano with a pedal that beats a tambourine and another for cymbals for a more authentic sounding alla Turca.

Does Tchaikovsky’s Chinese Dance have any relation to Peking Opera sound? I doubt it.

All these have been devised in the last few decades by a handful of inventive geniuses which enhanced and complemented the basic quartet sound, making whatever the Kronos chose to play something quite special. That has made it a household name as the leader in championing the propagation of contemporary music.

From the mantra-like flat rhythms of Arabic music to the structured fritillaries of Indian raga, the music played incorporated a richness of melodic line and variegated rhythm that was nothing short of spectacular.

Virtuosic accuracy

In the world within a world that is Malta, wherein the Cavatina of Beethoven’s B Flat Quartet op 131 to many people stills sounds outlandish, let alone the prickly passion of a Bartok one, it is about time the Maltese concert-going public is exposed to more innovative works on a regular basis.

I am pleased to say this is a facet of the world of music that year after year the Malta Arts Festival has been providing. I feel that this year with this performance by the Kronos the apogee has been reached.

The Kronos take the traditional string quartet to a different level, stratospherically far removed from we understand as standard quartet performance, and create a veritable odyssey of sound and rhythm that kept me riveted for well on to two hours without a break.

My own favourite was undoubtedly Oasis by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, written especially for the Kronos.

Its poetic descriptiveness and intrinsic beauty was mesmerising while Steve Reich, whose The Desert Music remains an eternal favourite of mine, put together this extraordinary tribute to the victims of 9/11.

It seems as if it were only yesterday that we were glued to our television screens in horrified disbelief as these planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

The Reich piece made one think of the many many souls that like fireflies illuminate the New York night sky over Ground Zero; sad and unquiet spirits that contrary to John Adams’s piece about 9/11, On the Transmigration of Souls, are unfulfilled a decade later and still need to be put to rest despite the bit of bad theatre about Bin Laden’s elimination that appalled the world a few months ago.

The diversity of background and mood that coloured each piece chosen by the Kronos at the Argotti Gardens on July 18 was an intellectual feast in itself.

What does hallmark each work is the variability of the sounds and the sheer virtuosic accuracy with which it is all put together.

Tashweesh which made the Malta audience smile for obvious reasons, by Palestinian composer collective Ramallah Underground, was a musical reflection of a dire situation but infused with an interesting optimism which contrasted starkly with the intensely Jewish Aheym by Bruce Dessner.

It is precisely this supranational flavour that makes the Kronos the charismatic quartet that it is, taking on the originality and richness of a contemporary world that despite the moral bankruptcy everyone bemoans, still can be kaleidoscopically coloured by music that not only reflects a contemporary world but enhances it. This is what the Kronos is all about and this is what I love so much about it.