Concert Review: Kronos enriches musical landscape
3/17/08
Kronos enriches musical landscape
By Jon W. Sparks
Special to The Commercial Appeal
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Kronos Quartet elevates the language of music, making sonic forays that put it in a realm not always appreciated by those accustomed to tradition.
That explains a good bit of the exodus between halves of the adventuresome combo's concert Saturday night at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.
More's the pity since it was a terrific, strong performance by one of the premiere advocates of contemporary music. Not only does Kronos perform extensively, but its collaborations with composers and other artists and commissioning of works has enriched the world's musical landscape since 1973.
The opening piece from the Norwegian group Xploding Plastix set the tonality for the evening. Taken from "The Order of Things," it is a whimsical work with a repetitive, even danceable, industrial-light sensibility. Following that was "Oh, Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me," an Iraqi tune with an intoxicating Arabic pulse.
This gives you a sense of the global influences and emotional range Kronos delights in presenting.
"Flugufrelsarinn" by the Icelandic group Sigur Ros is based on a story of a man trying to rescue helpless flies from approaching salmon. The result, I kid you not, is intensely romantic, almost to the point of being audibly painful, joyous and ending with a heartwrenching fade that is so very long and so exquisitely beautiful.
Kronos consists of brilliant performances on two violins, a viola and a cello -- and so much more. Most of the works incorporate recorded elements that can lead to effects both otherworldly and prosaic.
The evening's triumph was the final work, Stephen Prutsman's "Particle 423," what the composer calls a collage of snippets of sound. The musicians surround, support and overwhelm this cascade of familiar bits with terrific musicianship, wit and dreaminess.
In fact, the piece seems more like a pop culture version of "Finnegans Wake" -- fantastical, distorted and disconnected, with puns and absurd juxtapositions. A bit of "Shaft" followed by a few seconds of "My Old Kentucky Home" -- some live bashing of drums and recorded bits of "Turkey in the Straw" mixed with a dose of screaming and a worthy explosion.
It was funny and captivating until the musicians finally strolled off the stage and we knew that glorious, enigmatic reverie was over.
