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Kronoslogical T
he Kronos Quartet is the ne plus ultra, the ultimate. Over 40 years under their creative director and first violinist, David Harrington, this string quartet has demonstrated itself to be more unclassifiable than classical. A pro- found openness to cultural otherness and a willingness to take the string quartet repertoire to places that it has never been before underlie and have sustained what they deliver. The breadth and depth of their vision, the lucidity of their vivifica- tion and raw urgency of what they do can be described as heady-making.
In compositions such as Vladimir Mar-
tynov’s The Beatitudes and Astor Piazzol- la’s Asleep (part of Five Tango Sensa- tions) on one hand and the opening movement of George Crumb’s Black Angels and Terry Riley’s Cortejo Fúnebre En El Monte Diablo on the other, their
music runs the gamut from the medita- tive and comforting to the cathartic. They also have a remarkable track record when it comes to non-western and non- classical music-making. Beacons of that aspect might be their collaborations with Asha Bhosle, Café Tacuba, Carlos García (a Mexican leaf-blowing street per- former), Alim Qasimov, Homayun Sakhi, Taraf de Haïdouks, Trio Da Kali and Wu Man. And their canon is peppered with works from such as RD Burman, Jarvis Cocker, The National’s Brice Dessner, Esquivel, Jimi Hendrix, Blind Willie John- son and Carlos Paredes.
Already into their fifth decade, there has been an impressive constancy to their achievements and circle – with producer Judith Sherman, the little-sung hero presiding over much of what they have achieved. Founded by Harrington in Seattle, WA in 1973, Kronos put down
They’ve done more collaborations outside their box than the Chieftains. On the eve of their 40th anniversary (and label Nonesuch’s 50th) bash at the Barbican, Ken Hunt catches up with Kronos Quartet.
tap roots in San Francisco at the end of the 1970s. Their office and rehearsal apartment are a pleasant stroll into Golden Gate Park’s San Francisco Botani- cal Garden with its hummingbirds, ter- rapins and Matilija poppies. From their inception, they sought out composers and commissioned new works. In 1973 Harrington collared his former composi- tion teacher Ken Benshoof and blithely commissioned Traveling Music for a sym- bolic bag of doughnuts.
By 1978 they had coalesced into their first major line-up comprising Hank Dutt on viola, Harrington, second violin John Sherba and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. Until 1999, when ill-health necessitated her retirement from touring, Jeanrenaud occupied the cello chair. Jennifer Culp took over between 1999 and 2005, followed by Jeffrey Zeigler from 2005 to May 2013 and in turn Sunny Yang from June 2013.
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