Black Angels

"Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed. In short, very much the sort of disc we've come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet. With an overall theme of war and persecution linking the works, the disc opens with George Crumb's Black Angels for electric string quartet; a vividly descriptive work inspired by the Vietnam war. It dates from 1970 (it was completed somewhat ominously on Friday, March 13th) and is described by Crumb as ''a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world''. Those familiar with Crumb's works will be aware of his fondness for asking his performers to double on other instruments, and here a gamut of sounds ranging from gongs, maracas and crystal glasses, to vocal sounds such as chanting, whistling and whispering combine with Crumb's colourful, imaginative string writing.
At first glance Tallis's 40-part motet Spem in alium may seem a little out of place, particularly on a disc of string quartet music inspired by war. But as the accompanying note rightly points out it's probable that the original Latin text was taken from the story of Judith, in which Nebuchadnezzar's general, Holofernes, was besieging the Jewish fortress of Bethulia. Kronos's own arrangement (involving some multi-tracking) certainly makes a fascinating alternative to the original, with Kronos sounding remarkably like a Renaissance consort of viols.

An atmospheric blend of electronic sounds, string quartet and recorded folk-songs (collected by the composer during a visit to Trunk, Romania) can be heard in Istvan Marta's powerfully disturbing hommage to a small village community as they desperately fight to retain their sense of identity and heritage in the face of dictatorship and persecution. Not a piece I would find myself returning to often, but an impressive and moving work none the less. Something of a curiosity follows: Charles Ives recorded his song They are there! over 50 years ago (full marks for conviction Mr Ives, but zero for vocal technique!), but by the miracle of modern technology is partnered here by Kronos courtesy of an accompaniment part arranged by John Geist.

An intense, poignant account of Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet (a work dedicated to the victims of Fascism and war) brings this unusual and thought-provoking recital to a fitting conclusion. I've avoided bringing into play any comparisons with this performance as it strikes me that the interest and value lies primarily in the recital nature of the disc, though let me say that this performance can more than hold its own in the stiffest of competition."
(Gramophone April 1991)

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Twenty-five years represents a milestone for any musical ensemble. For the Kronos Quartet, the anniversary also celebrates the creation of a repertoire - 400 new string quartets, from composers spanning six continents and at least four generations - commissioned and premiered since 1973.

After a year playing violin in a Canadian orchestra to avoid the draft, David Harrington crossed back over the border to his native Seattle. "The war was still very present in everybody's mind. One night I turned on the radio and heard something wild, something scary. It was Black Angels by George Crumb, his musical response to Vietnam. I didn't even know it was quartet music at first, but it was a magnetic experience. All of a sudden it felt like this was absolutely the right music to play." The 22-year old Harrington picked up the phone and called Ken Benshoof, with whom he had studied composition as a teenager. "I'm starting a group," he announced, "because I have to play that music." Benshoof answered with a piece of his own, Traveling Music, which Harrington commissioned with a bag of doughnuts. The Kronos Quartet began with performances of these two works - along with Bartók's Third Quartet and Webern's Six Bagatelles - at North Seattle Community College before an audience of friends and family.

Harrington hasn't stopped calling composers since, and 25 years later Kronos is responsible for the creation of 400 new string quartets - more than twice the number by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms combined. They have played at Carnegie Hall and Central Park, at La Scala and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Their over thirty recordings have received Grammy, Deutscheschallplatten, and Edison awards. And they have introduced new music and new composers to an international audience numbering in the millions.

A double dedication - to quartet playing, and to the vitality of the form - is shared among violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. Add to this a sense of collaboration, with which Kronos brings pieces of music to life in rehearsal with composers, and craftsmanship, their view that each work is literally handmade, and you have the ingredients that have created a legacy that is as personal as it is prolific.

Based in San Francisco with its own staff and organization, the Kronos history reads with a seeming degree of inevitability. But the members' decision to concentrate exclusively on new music; their work with hundreds of composers, including some of the most significant of this century, to emerging voices; and their responses to 20 years of playing together offer another side: that their achievement, like their repertoire of over 600 works, has been made the old-fashioned way - piece by piece.