A Kronos Quartet concert is no ordinary recital. It is a journey into the contemporary human psyche through music. It never promises to be pleasant, but it is always honest. It is indeed a journey of A Thousand Thoughts.
Kronos have come up with a recital that showcases diverse styles, techniques and sounds- Alex Vella Gregory
Kronos have been around since 1973. Their mission is to commission and perform as much new music as possible. To date, they have had over 750 pieces written for them. Not bad for an art form considered ‘dead’.
They also have the added bonus of working directly with the composers they commission, as well as collaborating with musicians from all over the world and across different genres. These include the likes of Philip Glass, Henryk Gorecki, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
This means that all their performances stem from a direct dialogue with the composers they commission. Probably, there is no other musical ensemble in the world that has chronicled ‘modern’ man in such great detail.
Like last year’s performance at the Arts Festival, Kronos have come up with a recital that showcases diverse styles, techniques and sounds. I must admit, I found this year’s recital much more accessible and interesting.
Tenebrae by Bryce Dessner, made a great opening. It introduced the audience; I found the introduction of recorded voices at the end to be haunting.
Next up was an arrangement of a song by one of America’s most versatile artists, Laurie Anderson. Flow, a track from her 2010 album Homeland, is a short, but finely wrought piece of music in its own right.
This was followed by an arrangement of a traditional Vietnamese song as performed by the blind Vietnamese artist Kin Sinh. The arrangement, done by Jacob Garchik, captures the oriental sounds beautifully.
I was not quite as convinced by Sofia Gubaidulina’s String Quartet No. 4. Although superbly delivered by the quartet, I was left unmoved, if not bored. Of course, such matters are merely a question of taste, but I did find it rather too sporadic to my liking.
One of the highlights of the evening for me was the arrangement of the Raga Mishra Bhairavi by Ram Narayan. Not only is this Indian raga intrinsically beautiful, but the sustained drone was performed with such polish that it was nothing short of impressive.
What is most impressive about Kronos is the way they have extended the string quartet’s possibilities without any gimmicks. In Sim Sholom, a Jewish liturgical chant from 1913, the viola imitates the inflections of the human voice to perfection.
Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 4 Amazing Grace, takes as its starting point the hymn mentioned in the title. What Johnston has created is a modern take on the idea of ‘variations on a theme’, with the hymn cleverly woven into the music.
Kronos have a way of juxtaposing ideas that makes their concerts very particular. The intensity of Johnston’s String Quartet was followed by the disarming simplicity of Tusen Tankar (A thousand thoughts). This traditional Scandinavian song, which also gave this recital its name, was characterised by a haunting simplicity.
The final piece on the programme was Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Hold me, neighbour, in this storm. Vrebalov has managed to capture the diversity and brutality of her Balkan past, the uncertainties of the present, and the hopes and fears of the future.
The recital was simply divine, but an interval of sorts would have been in order. Other than that, this was one memorable evening, and definitely one of the highlights of the Malta Arts Festival.