Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120222
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The ultra-chic San Francisco group's audiences tend toward the young and arty, and it seemed that many of the area's usual chamber music fans passed on this concert.
Kronos was in Roanoke as part of the "One Night Stand" series, co-sponsored by Mill Mountain Theatre, and dedicated to sampling "the cutting edge" in the arts. But Sunday night's program was not terribly far-out.
The Kronos Quartet has marked strengths and weaknesses, which were on display Sunday night. On the plus side, this group deserves a medal for bringing a new and young audience into the concert hall. The chamber music audience noticeably ages with each passing year, but Kronos has exposed a new generation to serious music, and their habit of doing quartet versions of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors has injected a little fun into the concert experience.
However, too much of the Kronos Quartet is sheer marketing, and pretentious marketing at that. On the strength of Sunday night's performance, Kronos is a pretty good young quartet, but nothing more.
Playing as usual with electronic pick-ups and speakers, Kronos opened two African folk-sounding works, "Mai Nozipo" by Zimbabwean composer Dumisani Ambraham Maraire and Hamza El Din's "Escalay - The Water Wheel."
The quartet did John Zorn's "The Dead Man," a series of short "snapshots" dedicated to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The puzzled audience didn't realize the piece was over until first violinist David Harrington picked up the mike and said, "Our next piece . . .", after which there was enthusiastic applause.
Peter Sculthorpe's quartet "Jabiru Dreaming" was perhaps the finest work of the first half of the program. The work had some truly lovely episodes and vanished into a mist of twittering harmonics at the end.
After the interval, Kronos played Hirozaku Hiraishi's "Prismatic Soundscape," and John Oswald's "Specter," which featured digital overdubs.
The program concluded with Istvan Marta's "Doom. A Sigh," from the group's recent "Black Angels" compact disc. By turns apocalyptic, elegiac, menacing and strange, it was a strong ending to the concert.
The applause was loud and sustained, and Kronos returned for two encores, which included Bo Diddley's "Roadrunner" and Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze."
AUTHOR NOTE: Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
by CNB