You would probably never expect me to attend an event put on by the group: Friends of Chamber Music, but that is exactly what the cow and I did on Sunday afternoon at Kaul Auditorium on the Reed College campus.
The dark and rainy afternoon was made for the tumultuous music experience created by four men and their instruments of two violins, one viola and one cello. Much of the audience was our age or older but we were told after the performance that the audience ranged in age from ten to ninety (the chamber society was very excited about these numbers).
It is difficult to describe the music Kronos creates. The Quartet is nonconventional in the manner that they create music. They are not only composers of their own music, but they also commission work and often have various types of music arranged for their instruments of choice. The program for Sunday afternoon follows with the name of the piece, the composer and the country of origin.
Mugam Sayagi - Franghiz Ali-Zadeh - Azerbaijan
Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me - Unknown - Iraq
Three Selections from John's Book of Alleged Dances - John Adams - United States
Love Bleeds Radiant - Dan Visconti - Very interesting because Kronos has a commission of composer under 30 years of age (this guy is 25).
Last Adualusian Sky - Osvaldo Golijov - Argentina
Raga Mishra Bhairavi - Ram Narayan - India
Cercle du Nord III - Derek Charke - Canada
After the quartet had completed their program they returned for two encores. The first encore was the piece they created for the Golden Globe nominated movie "The Fountain." It was tumultuous, haunting and LOUD! Once again they attempted to leave but the audience was not allowing such an act. They returned again and played a piece by the Icelandic group - Sigur Ros . It was beautiful and a perfect end to a great day of music.
Lucky for us the performance was not finished. There was a question and answer session moderated by NPR correspondent Ketzel Levine. The best question asked was, "Are you ever criticized for amplifying your instruments?" The answer was basic, "you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don't."
