Legendary quartet

Fifty novelties for the Kronos 50th anniversary

Electrically amplified and highly energetic, the Kronos Quartet has been thrilling audiences for 50 years.

(Bild: © Musical Instrument Museum)

For half a century, the US-American Kronos Quartet has been delighting musicians, composers and a wide audience worldwide with its way of interpreting string quartets. After a long time, the ensemble led by David Harrington will once again be playing in Vienna on May 15 at the Konzerthaus.

They have taken the string quartet into a new dimension, using its roots in Viennese classical music as a foundation for an exploratory journey through regions of the world, cultures and musical styles, which they undertake together with contemporary composers, musicians and the audience. The sound reflects the diversity of expressive, experimental, often very rhythmic, then again quite exotic, tender or fragile. Nothing less than the whole of life.

Even after 50 years, ensemble founder David Harrington still sparkles with enthusiasm, energy and an irrepressible curiosity that is infectious in all directions and states in the online interview: "It's simply wonderful what's happening in the world of music today!"

The young Kronos Quartet in 1979 with cellist Joan Jeanrenaud

(Bild: zvg)

It all began with the E flat major chord
The story of the Kronos Quartet begins with the opening chord in E flat major of Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 127 in the version by the Budapest String Quartet: The force of this brief moment so captivated the young David Harrington in the early 1960s that he decided, "I have to find a way to make a sound like that myself." Together with colleagues from the Seattle Youth Orchestra, he finally succeeded in achieving this experience for a tenth of a second. Since then, the search for the perfect tenth of a second has been a basic principle of the restless violinist and his fellow musicians.

Musical response to the Vietnam War
The next key moment for Harrington came with the string quartet "Black Angels" by George Crumb, a musical response to the Vietnam War and the world situation in the 1970s: in 13 movements with references to Schubert, the Renaissance, Jimi Hendrix and Béla Bartók, it is the first electrically amplified string quartet, with distortions, unusual sound sources such as gongs, tuned crystal glasses and chanting in different languages.

Performance of "Black Angels" 2013

(Bild: © Lenny Gonzalez 510-814-0674 year 2013)

For Harrington, it was an experience like Beethoven's E flat major chord and the certainty: this is it. A direct response to everything that was happening around him. So in 1973 he founded the quartet with like-minded musician friends and called it Kronos. A slight misunderstanding, as it was initially supposed to be called Chronos, the personification of time, and not pay homage to the child-devouring Greek father of the gods ...

50 new pieces
They began with Bartók, Stravinsky and Hindemith, eventually venturing into the challenging "Black Angels" and increasingly attracting composers from all over the world to create works especially for Kronos.

For the 50th anniversary, there are therefore also 50 new pieces, which will be performed in various constellations during the course of the extensive concert tour and which were also on the program for the auditions to fill the two vacancies that will soon arise for long-time members John Sherba on violin and Hank Dutt on viola. Paul Wiancko recently joined as cellist.

Co-composers for the overall event
The collaboration with the composers was an important factor in their realization of the music and intentions very early on. The way the composer talks about his piece, what the composer sings to the musicians, is what the ensemble members try to absorb and implement in their playing in the best possible way. They thus become co-composers, listen carefully to the work as a whole and contribute their ideas.

The energy that is released here encourages a shared curiosity and an unconditional desire to continue working together - and it is transferred to the audience. The range of musical possibilities is constantly expanding and, according to Harrington, "it's a joy to learn new things!"

The audience naturally senses this too, which explains the success of the Kronos Quartet. And the new music takes nothing away from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert: "If Schubert had known the Indonesian musician Peni Candra Rini, he would have wanted to write it for her," Harrington is convinced, and that also applies to Beethoven and African and Indian music. Creative people use what is available at the moment, they work with what fascinates them. Just like Harrington's E flat major chord.

Hank Dutt, John Sherba, David Harrington and Paul Wiancko

(Bild: Lenny Gonzalez)

Away with the vibrato
There have always been formative moments in the long history of the ensemble, and they are also a continuous factor in the further development of the musicians' sound and playing styles. Terry Riley, a pioneer of minimal music and one of the many composers who have worked with the Kronos Quartet time and again, called for the vibrato to be removed from the playing in the early 1980s - and created a completely new listening experience when he finally succeeded: incredibly expressive and precise, as Harrington explains, and: "The piece completely changed our sound."

The Polish avant-garde composer Henryk Górecki presented his musical intentions during a rehearsal as an air violin performance, which, according to Harrington, had the effect of playing to the electric guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix: "Stunning!" Morton Feldman, on the other hand, gave what at first glance seemed to be a somewhat unusual instruction for a work with elongated notes: "It should sound like Schubert!" And with this image, he brought a direction to the interpretation that had not been thought of before and which opened up unexpected paths.

Looking forward to the Vienna concert
Key works and new compositions can now be heard at the concert in Vienna - by Sun Ra, Terry Riley, Peni Candra Rini, Steve Reich and others. David Harrington's anticipation is also infectious: "I can't wait for you to hear our program in Vienna!"

Verena Kienast