The indomitable Kronos Quartet is back in town this week for a multi-faceted residency at Zankel that features four separate programs, plus a masterclass with pipa player Wu Man on 3/17. Last night's concert featured Kronos and guests playing around with the idea of playfulness, using both toys and technology to enhance their traditional four-string setup. (Kronos founder David Harrington talks about the concert in this video on Carnegie's website.)
Jim Thirlwell's Eremikophobia (World Premiere) was commissioned by Kronos for this concert. An undulating work inspired by Thirlwell's experience with the "singing sands" of the Oman desert, the quartet built to a peak of raw intensity before fading away like the wind. Kronos then yielded the stage to Margaret Leng Tan, who performed Erik Griswold's Old MacDonald's Yellow Submarine (2004) simultaneously on grand and toy pianos. She followed this with Chinese composer Ge Gan-Ru's Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! (2006): an inspired mini-Peking opera. in which Leng Tan shouted the anguished text while playing a variety of toy instruments, many bought for a dollar in Chinatown.
Following intermission, Portugese composer Victor Gama performed SOL(t)O (2007) using homemade instruments (including the extraordinary toha, which sounded halfway between a guitar and harp) while accompanied by a video depicting the story (in text) of an Angolan nuclear scientist who was killed in a suspicious car accident. The video certainly grabbed my attention, but at the expense of the music, leaving me wary that its simple, repeating motif wouldn't have stood well on its own.
Kronos then returned to perform Gama's Rio Cunene (another world premiere), in which they played instruments Gama reconstructed from military scrap, in addition to their own instruments. Playing behind were images on Angolan children playing on abandoned tanks and artillery in the Angolan bush.
The concert ended with electronic pranksters Matmos performing their For Terry Riley (2005), inspired by Riley's first quartet for Kronos. It had everything: synthesizers, pedal steel guitars, samplers, various sound makers – even a kitchen sink (which appeared on M.C. Schmidt's simultaneous video.) The mix with Kronos started out well, but it wasn't long before Matmos' beat-filled build completely washed out the (amplified) quartet. Which resolved itself as soon as Matmos started sampling and remixing Kronos in real time.
Kronos is at Zankel the next two nights, including a late show tonight (11pm) featuring Scandinavian musicians, both acoustic and amplified. Tickets at the box office.