MUSIC REVIEW : KRONOS QUARTET EXPRESSES ITS INTEGRITY IN CONCERT

The tie that binds in Kronos Quartet programs is often more apparent than real, but there was an audible integrity to the ensemble’s concert Friday night at Schoenberg Hall. The unfamiliar works all displayed clear-cut forms, defined by obsessive textures and unusual colors.

In its local premiere, “The Rugmaker,” by Bunita Marcus, proved the apotheosis of verticality. Chordal sections give way to ascending arpeggios, leading to a long denouement over a descending ostinato figure. The vibrant sections evolve organically, but still lack linear direction.

Australian Peter Sculthorpe based his Eighth Quartet on Balinese music, and though not identifiably Asian, it has a sort of abstractly alien quality. Mournful movements featuring the wonderfully expressive abilities of cellist Joan Jeanrenaud contrasted with bustling sections of col legno and pizzicato effects.

Alfred Schnittke derived the musical material of his Second Quartet from Russian church music, although that sounded no more apparent than the Balinese influence in Sculthorpe’s piece. The four etude-like movements achieve a cumulative emotional impact through sheer insistence.

The lone repertory staple on the agenda was Bartok’s Sixth Quartet. Kronos has played it before, but not with such warmth or marvelously insinuative elegance. The wonted bite and intensity were still there, but focused with a rare degree of reflective poise.

A similar measure of sonic richness enhanced all the works, though the static nature of much of the music produced moments of perceptible squirming in the audience. Nonetheless, Kronos was called back by vigorous applause for a typically improbable encore--Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”