EN / RU

Kronos Quartet (USA)
Running time:
2 parts by 45 minutes
12+
6 March 2019 Wednesday 19.00 Grand hall
19.00 Grand hall

Kronos Quartet (USA)

Kronos Quartet returns to Moscow!
Any news of their forthcoming visit immediately reach music aficionados, especially those fond of interesting contemporary trends. The quartet performed in Moscow in 1997, 1998, 2004, and 2006, with new set lists every time. A classical instrumental ensemble enjoys permanent sold-out – it may seem strange. But there’s at least one simple explanation for the Kronos Quartet’s phenomenon. The thing is that in the world there is not so many ensembles that specialize on new classical music, and even less those playing extremely different styles that coexist today, from quartets of Alfred Schnittke to queer avant-garde installations.

The musicians perform music of great minimalists (Terry Riley, Philipp Glass, Steve Reich), jazzmen (Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans), and rock stars (Jimi Hendrix), as well as working with ethnic musicians (innuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Chinese pipa player Vu Man), or recording movie soundtracks (Lele Marchitelli’s “The Great Beauty”, Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” etc.). But Kronos style is always distinctive with its perfect intonation and “unhuman” precision of sound.

During almost 40 years this unique San Francisco quartet (multiply “Grammy” winner!) has been playing thousands of concerts, and released more than 60 albums, providing more than 950 composers and arrangers with commissions. In 2015 Kronos Quartet started “Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire” – an educational project aimed to replenish contemporary quartet repertoire, and with this purpose the first library for string quartet is being commissioned and advertised. During next five years, five male and five female composers would write ten new pieces every year, for students and novice ensemble players.

The forthcoming concert gives us a unique opportunity to listen to some of these new works. As well as the world premiere of a brand new composition by Russian Vladimir Martynov, Kronos’s longtime collaborator.