Hell on Earth and Hell Beyond: the Kronos Quartet in Usher Hall, by Michael Miller
Kronos Quartet
Usher Hall, Sat 21 Aug: 8:00pm
David Harrington, Violin
John Sherba, Violin
Jeffrey Zeigler, Cello
Aleksandra Vrebalov - ...hold me, neighbor, in this storm...
Steve Reich - Different Trains
George Crumb - Black Angels
The greatest surprise in the Kronos Quartet's concert at Usher Hall was that this was their very first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival. I'd have thought that they'd be regulars going back many years, given their well-known mixture of daring repertory and popular appeal. For almost forty years now, they have achieved almost cult status by playing a certain kind of contemporary music: challenging works which demand concentration but which are sufficiently colorful and aggressive that they commandeer the audience's attention from start to finish. The works in this concert were all endowed with a vast range of color, thanks to the introduction of quite a menagerie of alien instruments and the almost constant use of electronic enhancements. Along with this, the compositions exceeded the limits of music, since they were performances in themselves through the use of elaborate props and lighting — and all of them made their effect by conjuring up images in our imaginations, and through this imagery, telling stories, or relating experiences, feelings, and ideas in a poetic way that more or less consistently suggests a narrative. This internal Gesamtkunstwerk is entirely in harmony with the Edinburgh Festival, and I shouldn't be surprised to see them here again.
