Political Awareness Takes Note

Over its 14 years of performance and recording, the Kronos Quartet has radically altered the parameters of chamber music.

Though Kronos’ unique approach has been touted by such antipodal cultural beacons as Time and Rolling Stone, most observers have fixed their gaze on the group’s most evident departures from tradition. They note the San Francisco-based ensemble’s exclusive devotion to 20th-Century music, its coffee-house chic attire, and radical notions of programming that place a Bartok Quartet cheek by jowl with Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

Kronos’ most radical innovation, however, is the introduction of political and social awareness into the cool, abstract medium of classical chamber music. Examples of this atypical fusion include George Crumb’s “Black Angels,” a string quartet written in response to the Vietnam War; Steve Reich’s “Different Trains,” a commentary on the Holocaust; Terry Riley’s anti-war “Salome Dances for Peace” and Scott Johnson’s “How It Happens,” based on speeches by the late left-wing political journalist I. F. Stone.

Thursday at 8 p.m. in Copley Symphony Hall, Kronos will premiere “Rainfall Fragility,” Johnson’s fourth installment of his planned six-part “How It Happens.”

“The idea of using Stone’s words appealed to me,” explained Kronos founder and first violinist David Harrington. “Our society as a whole is lacking in people who are visionaries. Stone’s words and wisdom are rare.”

“Rainfall Fragility,” like the other movements of “How It Happens,” is based on a speech Stone gave in 1983 that was broadcast over National Public Radio. Johnson electronically manipulated portions of the speech on a track that is integrated into the live quartet performance. According to the composer’s program notes, some of the melodic phrases of the string parts are also derived from the rise and fall of Stone’s voice.

Harrington, however, does not equate these politically-oriented works with pulpit-pounding advocacy. He denied that he and his colleagues pursue a specific political agenda in the music they choose and commission.

“What I am looking for is music that feels right and vital at the time,” he explained in a phone interview from the Kronos office in San Francisco. “At the end of an evening, I want our listeners to experience the major emotions; I hope they will grapple with these ideas and emotions on their own.”

Kronos’ Thursday program includes a second premiere, California composer Mary Wright’s) “Jeff and Jenny,” as well as contemporary Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina’s Quartet No. 2, Riley’s early “Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector,” and Bob Ostertag’s “All the Rage.”

For the typical string quartet, giving a composition’s world premiere is a rare event, but for Kronos it has become almost mundane. Most of their vast repertory has been written especially for them, and Harrington noted that some 35 compositions are currently in the works for Kronos.

Kronos is no stranger to San Diego, although all of the quartet’s previous concerts here have been given on the UC San Diego campus, which favors avant garde music performance. The ensemble had been scheduled to appear on the symphony’s outdoor SummerPops series in August but was rescheduled because of low ticket sales and to take advantage of the symphony’s indoor venue.

Playing outdoors, however, is not outside the Kronos orbit. In June, they opened New York’s Central Park outdoor concert series, and earlier this season they played in the roofless ruins of a 12th-Century cathedral in Perugia, Italy. Harrington noted that the Perugians could not get enough Kronos: the four Americans played encores until three in the morning. (The unusual program began at midnight.)

Besides Harrington, the Kronos Quartet includes violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. These four musicians, who have played together since 1978, have a strong commitment to the ensemble and its goals. Harrington said that no member has ever seriously considered pulling out of the group.

“The music that we play and that has been written for us has a certain magnetic quality. We feel good about the compositions we are doing, and the daily process of performance and discovery reinforces that.”

Championing music by pop composers and by non-Western composers has riled Kronos’ more hidebound critics. The ensemble’s most recent compact disc for Elektra/Nonesuch, “Voices of Africa,” compiles new works by African composers generally unknown to Western music-lovers. Most of the disc’s compositions were either written for or commissioned by Kronos; the list of composers includes Dumisani Maraire from Zimbabwe, Moroccan Hassan Hakmoun, and Ugandan Justinian Tamusuza.

“What we are doing can be threatening. There are some people who would like to build a fence around string quartet repertory and keep it the province of Western composers. In fact, some people think a fence was built in 1827, the year of Beethoven’s death. Like Robert Frost, I’ve never liked fences.”

Ancient electronic music. Music lovers around the world spent a year celebrating the Mozart bicentennial in 1991, but members of the College Music Society have a more esoteric anniversary to fete next week. To commemorate the first concert of electronic music, held 40 years ago at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, a concert of electronic music from 1952-1972--compositions by Vladimir Ussachevsky, Milton Babbitt, Robert Erickson, and Otto Luening--will be presented Oct. 29 in the University of San Diego’s Shiley Hall.

The College Music Society is holding its annual meeting Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at the downtown Doubletree Hotel. This 11 a.m. concert at USD is part of the society’s day-long symposium on the history and current state of tape and electroacoustic music. A second concert at 8 p.m. in Shiley Hall will focus on more recent electronic compositions, including works by UC San Diego composers Bob Willey and Ami Ruudunskaya.

Among the notables scheduled to attend the conference are Otto Luening, 92-year-old electronic music pioneer; Don Buchla, inventor of one of the first synthesizers; former UC San Diego electronic music guru Pauline Oliveros, and UCSD’s Roger Reynolds, winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in music.

The Latin beat. Las Voces, a vocal ensemble specializing in 20th-Century Latin American music, will bring the distinctive rhythms and colors of that repertory to the the Chula Vista Public Library Monday at 7:30 p.m. Under the direction of Xiomara DiMaio, the group will sing compositions by Venezuelan Antonio Lauro, Chilean Juan Orrego-Salas, and Argentine Carlos Guastavino. Pianist Diana Damitz, the ensemble’s accompanist, will play a suite by Brazilian Heitor Villa Lobos.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

NOTED BARITONE

Noted American baritone Sherrill Milnes will offer favorite opera arias accompanied by maestro Donald Barra and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra at 8:15 p.m. Thursday at the Heritage Hills Country Club, Rancho Santa Fe. The black-tie event opens the chamber orchestra’s 1992-93 season. Tickets are $36-$45 (753-6402).