Kronos Quartet -- L-R, violinists David Harrington, John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler perform at Transylvania University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2007. Copyrighted photo by Joseph Rey Au, courtesy of Transylvania University.
You have to love a string quartet that can create parking problems and traffic congestion on Broadway. Classical music in Lexington often takes place in relative quiet. But last night, there was unmistakable hubbub around Transylvania University’s Mitchell Fine Arts Building.
It was for Kronos Quartet, the new music pioneers brought in to inaugurate the Dorothy J. and Fred K. Smith Concert Series.
The stated goal of the endowed series is to “bring high-quality musical performances to Transylvania’s campus annually, reflecting a variety of musical styles that will include classical, jazz, American folk, world music, popular, musical theater, opera and multimedia.”
Save for the opera and musical theater, series really couldn’t have come up with a better ensemble to distill the breadth of that goal into one evening of music.
One of the remarkable things about Kronos is that in a world that has yet to embrace contemporary art music and sometimes seems to be actively trying to ditch traditional classical, the group has steadily grown an audience. And they haven’t done that by spoon feeding listeners pablum. A lot of Kronos’ catalog is challenging, modern-art music detractors may call noise and unlistenable. But whether it’s contemporary minimalist composition, Indian raga, Latin music or a cover of a modern rock classic, Kronos Quartet has played with commitment and passion. That’s something we’ve been hearing for more than three decades and we got to see last night at Transy.
For the Quartet, it was actually quite an accessible concert, custom-made to give Lexington fans a look at a cross-section of the material the group has been working on since their last appearance here, in 1996.
The evening got off to a slightly shaky start with El Sinaloense by Severiano Briseno. The violins and viola are electronically distorted and ride the propulsive beat of the cello. But a glitch produced a crackle in the speakers that marred the piece’s carnival-like spirit. It was a moment that could have opened the door for purists to criticize the amplification. But quickly, problems were ironed out, and Kronos was demonstrating how the electronics enhance and add color to a centuries old art form.
A prime example was Perfidia (Perfidy) by Alberto Dominguez, with the
Quartet accompanying a recording of Carlos Garcia blowing on the edge
of an ivy leaf. The audience hesitated to clap after the piece, seeming
to not want to break the spell of the strangely beautiful moment. There were numerous transcendent moments, including J.G. Thirlwell’s
dark and creepy Nomatophobis, Clint Mansell’s Requiem for a Dream
Suite that perfectly reflected the film, and Randall Woolf’s
arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight, which married string
quartet and dance hall. But the middle evoked the jazz ensemble where
Midnight originated, particularly in Jeffrey Zeigler’s double bass-like
cello.
Zeigler had numerous parts like that throughout the night, leaving
violist Hank Dutt to steal the show with a deep, rich tone. Dutt was
particularly highlighted during Indian pieces such as Hamza El Din’s
Escalay and during the first encore.
The most striking thing about seeing Kronos live is they really play all of this stuff. They play music from around the globe in a wide variety of styles with a vast array of techniques and tempos, and they do it without a stumble. There were several moments last night, such as Aleksandra Vrebalov’s … hold me, neighbor, in this storm …, that demonstrated that if you take away all the microphones, effects and recordings, Kronos is still an amazing quartet.
Transy started its new series off with a bang and gave itself a tough act to follow.
~ Maybe the most amazing thing about last night was it was completely free. Kronos commands substantial ticket prices elsewhere, but everyone in Haggin Auditorium last night got in free.
~ If you enjoyed the performance of Hamza El Din's Escalay last night, I highly recommend checking out Joan Jeanrenaud's version for solo cello. It is on the former Kronos cellist's 2002 album, Metamorphosis.
This was a great concert and it was nice to see an audience of young students enjoying great music. Kronos plays as well as any of the great traditional quartets. I wish they would release more of the compositions they have commissioned into sheet music so this wonderful contemparary music would be available to student quartets. They would be doing a great service to expose our next generation of musicians to these works.
Posted by: Joe Tackett | October 11, 2007 at 09:39 AM