Joseph Vella’s composition for the Kronos Quartet

May I elaborate slightly on Alex Vella Gregory’s reference to the Kronos Quartet’s previous visit to Malta (‘Music, coffee and catacombs’, The Sunday Times, July 10).

In 1982, the American composer/musicologist Lejaren Hiller was in Malta as a guest of the US embassy to give some lectures. We became acquainted and he also got to know some of my music. Mr Hiller informed me that, on his recommendation, the embassy was inviting to Malta a young American string quartet by the name of Kronos and he suggested that I compose something specifically for them. In fact, some weeks later I received a letter from David Harrington (leader) inviting me to write a piece for Kronos.

The result was my String Quartet No. 1, which was given its first-ever performance by Kronos in a concert held at the Manoel Theatre on October 16, 1984, together with works by Riley, Shostakovich and Webern. This string quartet is now available on CD played by the Sofia String Quartet.

It may interest your readers to know that the current formation of the Kronos is slightly different from the original in that, at that time, the cellist was Joan Jeanrenaud.

I still recall with pleasure the lunch party we all had in the garden of my house in Rabat.