Kronos Quartet performs two concerts at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis this weekend, featuring works from their album Floodplain and Laurie Anderson's Grammy-nominated "Flow." "It's hard to hype the Kronos Quartet," says the Star Tribune. "The group ... really has transformed the face of chamber music; it still makes many younger rivals seem staid." The Winnipeg Free Press gives 4.5 stars to a recent concert by this "new music royalty," exclaiming: "Everything they touch seems to turn to gold."
Kronos Quartet is in Minneapolis this weekend for two concerts at the Walker Arts Center's McGuire Theater. Tonight's program, titled Music Without Borders, features pieces from their latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain; on Saturday's program, themed Sonic Edge: Indie, Rock, Jazz, Beyond, Kronos performs works by Bryce Dessner, Damon Albarn, and Michael Gordon, as well as Laurie Anderson's "Flow." (Anderson's original version, off her album Homeland, is up for Best Pop Instrumental Performance at next week's Grammy Awards.) Preceding the weekend's concerts was a free talk with the group's founder, violinist, and artistic director David Harrington, held at the theater last night.
In a preview of these events, Kronos Quartet is the subject of a feature profile in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Harrington spoke with Britt Robson for the article about this weekend's programs and their place in Kronos's ever-eclectic repertoire stemming from the hundreds of commissions written for the group over its 35-plus-year history.
"We want to give our audience as much of an idea of the expanse of our work as possible, especially if we haven't been there for a while and we haven't been to Minneapolis for eight years," says Harrington. "Every new concert is a new opportunity and has a new context."
You can read the article at startribune.com.
In a separate listing of the concerts, the Star Tribune says: "It's hard to hype the Kronos Quartet. The group, pushing 40, really has transformed the face of chamber music; it still makes many younger rivals seem staid. Kronos thought globally before that was fashionable; the list of its collaborators reads like a who's who of contemporary music." Read more at startribune.com.
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Earlier in the week, Kronos performed at Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival, to which the Winnipeg Free Press gives four-and-a-half stars. "It's not every day new music royalty comes to town," raves reviewer Holly Harris. "Everything they touch seems to turn to gold."
The program featured several Canadian premieres, including the Quartet's version of Anderson's "Flow." "The shortest piece of the night proved the adage less is more," writes Harris. "All but a few minutes in length, Laurie Anderson's 'Flow' begins—and ends—like a whispered prayer with the strings softly playing in unison."
Read the complete concert review at winnipegfreepress.com.
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Kronos Quartet next performs at the Ruby Diamond Auditorium in Tallahassee, Florida. For more information on this and other upcoming Kronos concerts, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To peruse the Kronos Quartet Nonesuch catalog, head to the Nonesuch Store now.
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