CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Kronos Quartet

Zankel Hall
Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 PM in Zankel Hall: Glenn Kotche in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

Kronos Quartet
·· David Harrington, Violin
·· John Sherba, Violin
·· Hank Dutt, Viola
·· Jeffrey Zeigler, Cello
Glenn Kotche, Percussion

RAZ MESINAI Crossfader 1 (World Premiere)
RAMALLAH UNDERGROUND (arr. Jacob Garchik) Tashweesh (NY Premiere)
TRAD. (arr. Garchik) Smyrneiko Minore (World Premiere)
TRAD. (arr. Judith Berkson and Garchik) Ov Horachamim (World Premiere)
HANNA KULENTY String Quartet No. 4, "A Cradle Song" (NY Premiere)
GLENN KOTCHE Anomaly (NY premiere)
GEORGE CRUMB Black Angels

Program Notes:

Raz Mesinai (b. 1973)
Crossfader

Raz Mesinai was born in Jerusalem in 1973. His first two decades were spent in frequent transit between Jerusalem and New York City, where he was immersed in the world of traditional Middle Eastern music, and the dub and hip-hop scenes, respectively. He quickly became involved in the avant-garde, downtown music scene of New York, performing, improvising, and leading his own ensembles on percussion, piano, and sampler. Mesinai’s electronic and electro-acoustic music exists at the crossroads of composition, sound design, and modern studio production. His acclaimed recordings under the moniker Badawi, and as one-half of the seminal duo Sub Dub (with John Ward), are difficult to classify, but have been called hybrid electronica / dub / percussion / avant-garde compositions. Since 1999 Mesinai has been releasing music under his own name as well, including three releases on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Mesinai has collaborated with many of New York’s top musicians, including Eyvind Kang, Mark Dresser, Marc Ribot, Mark Feldman, John Zorn, Shelley Hirsch, Elliott Sharp, and Zeena Parkins.

About Crossfader, Mesinai writes:

Written for the Kronos Quartet, Crossfader incorporates the rhythms, pulses and full-throttle energy of electronic dance music into the string quartet medium. Although it was initially written for string quartet and electronics, I realized that all of the sounds I wanted could be derived straight from the instruments alone. By using the many splendid extended techniques that a stringed instrument can deliver, the players simulate such effects as delays, phasers, and flanging used in modern electronic dance music.

Raz Mesinai’s Crossfader was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Deborah and Creig Hoyt.

Ramallah Underground
Tashweesh (arr. Jacob Garchik)

Ramallah Underground (RU) is a musical collective based in Ramallah, Palestine, attempting to rejuvenate Arabic culture through their music. RU was founded by artists Boikutt, Stormtrap, and Aswatt. They produce music ranging from hip-hop to trip-hop to down tempo. The members started off as producers; Boikutt and Stormtrap later picked up the microphone and began to MC in Arabic, adding a political layer to their music. RU’s hope is to give a new voice to Palestinians and Arabs, promoting an alternative voice from the Arab world.

About Tashweesh, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet writes:

I first heard Ramallah Underground on MySpace. Their sound was distinctive, and they seemed very interesting as a group. They were open to the world of music. I began an e-mail correspondence with them, and found that one member lived in Palestine, another in Vienna and the third in Dubai. I sent them a bunch of Kronos CDs, and in exchange they sent me a lot of their music. After I had spent a lot of time with their work, I felt it would be great if they would write for Kronos. Tashweesh is the result.

Trombonist and composer Jacob Garchik has lived in New York since 1994, and has contributed arrangements and transcriptions for Kronos since 2006. As a trombonist, he has performed with the Lee Konitz New Nonet, the Ohad Talmor / Steve Swallow Sextet, Slavic Soul Party, the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and the Four Bags. He has also worked with composers George Lewis, Joe Maneri, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, and James Tenney; choreographers Yoshiko Chuma and Anita Cheng; and the Theatre of a Two-headed Calf. His second, independently released CD is titled Romance. Garchik also plays accordion, bass trombone, tuba, computer, and piano.

Ramallah Underground’s Tashweesh, arranged by Jacob Garchik, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Columbia Foundation and the David Harrington Research and Development Fund.


Traditional
Smyrneiko Minore (arr. Jacob Garchik)

This arrangement of Smyrneiko Minore is inspired by a 1918 recording of Greek singer Marika Papagika (1890–1943). Of the many immigrant groups arriving in America through Ellis Island, the Greek community was one of the more persistent and enduring. The breeding ground of Greek-American music was often the “café Amans,” atmospheric gathering places filled with cultural reassurance, Greek newspapers, home-cooked food, ouzo, strong coffee and, always, music. One of the most popular was a New York–based operation run by the husband and wife team of Kostas and Marika Papagika.

Marika Papagika was born on the island of Kos. She and her husband arrived in New York in 1915, on board a ship that sailed from the Greek port of Piraeus. By 1925 they owned and operated their own club. Marika became a noted exponent of the Smyrnaic Greek style of the rebetiko tragoudi, the freshly reinvented and garrulous music that first emerged in Smyrna, and was then tempered by the tragic events of the 1922 Turkish expulsions that transplanted the Greek community into the ramshackle world of Piraeus.

By this time Marika was also an established recording artist, and she was one of the first to record rembetika in the new world. Papagika’s first four-song session took place in New York in 1918 and included the celebrated Smyrneiko Minore. [The recording has been re-released on Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics (1918-1954), complied by Ian Nagoski for Dust-to-Digital Records.] Among the song’s lyrics is the stanza, “If you love me and it’s a dream / May I never wake up / In the sweet dawn / God lets me take my soul away.”

Smyrneiko Minore, arranged by Jacob Garchik, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the David Harrington Research & Development Fund.

(Program note by Paul Vernon, adapted from the article “Seeking Marika,” which appeared in the world music magazine fRoots. Reprinted with permission.)



Traditional
Ov Horachamim (arr. Judith Berkson and Jacob Garchik)

This arrangement of Ov Horachamim is inspired by a recording of Fraydele Oysher (1913–2004). Fraydele was born in Lipkon, Bessarabia, which is in contemporary Moldova. She came to America at an early age with her father (who was a cantor), her mother, and her brother, Moishe. The children, both with magnificent voices, were tutored in the liturgical chants of the synagogue. Moishe became known as a great cantor and “The Master Singer of His People.” Fraydele was offered opportunities to sing as a female cantor, but opted to remain on the stage, bringing the sound of the synagogue to the theater. She became a star of Yiddish theater, traveling throughout the Americas in plays that were written especially for her, and performing folk songs, theater songs, and liturgical chants with her husband, Harold Sternberg.

Fraydele recorded Ov Horachamim on an album titled Yiddish Soul. The text of Ov Horachamim is a piyut, or liturgical poem, recited during Jewish services at the end of the Torah processional. The translated text reads: “Father of compassion, may he have mercy on the people he has always sustained, remembering his covenant with our ancestors. May God rescue our souls from bad times, restrain evil inclination within us, and grace us eternally, and fulfill our requests in good measure with salvation and mercy.”

Judith Berkson is a Brooklyn-based vocalist, pianist, accordionist, and composer. She studied voice at the New England Conservatory with Lucy Shelton, theory and composition with Joe Maneri, and piano with Judith Godfrey and Viola Haas. She has performed and recorded with The Delphian Jazz Orchestra, Steve Coleman, the Four Bags, ASM New Music Ensemble, the Jacob Garchik Trio, and Theodore Bikel. Her work has appeared at the BrucknerTage in Austria, the Schumann Festival in Germany, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, and the Other Half Festival in New York City. She is also a cantor who officiates at synagogues in New York and Massachusetts, and is the leader of Platz Machen, a hardcore rock band whose songs are based on Hebrew liturgy and centurial music.

Judith Berkson and Jacob Garchik’s arrangement of Ov Horachamim was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the David Harrington Research and Development Fund, and is the first part of a five-song cycle dedicated to the memory of Harold Goldberg.


Hanna Kulenty (b. 1961)
String Quartet No. 4, “A Cradle Song”

Hanna Kulenty, born in Bialystok, Poland, studied composition with Wlodzimierz Kotonski at the Chopin Music Academy (Warsaw) and with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music (The Hague). She participated in several summer courses in Kazimierz and Darmstadt, where she studied with Iannis Xenakis, Witold Lutoslawski, Thomas Kessler, and François Bernard Mâche. Kulenty has composed two operas, 12 works for orchestra, and more than 60 other pieces. Her earlier music—consisting of multiple layers of simultaneous “arcs” that begin at different points of their emotional trajectories and proceed at different speeds—often calls for vast instrumental resources. Her turn towards minimalism in later works may be attributed to studying with Andriessen; Kulenty calls this her “European trance music,” structuring her compositions as single, powerful arcs. Since the success of her opera The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams at the Munich Biennale in 1996, she has been considered one of the leading figures among Polish composers.

About String Quartet No. 4, “A Cradle Song,” Kulenty writes:

The first time I wrote ‘A Cradle Song’ was in the year my daughter Misia was born, 1982, [during] a time [when] I was studying composition. I wrote a simple melody for violin and soprano voice with a Polish text, and it was performed once at the Music Academy in Warsaw.

Ten years later Misia died. After a few months I wrote a new ‘A Cradle Song,’ using only part of the original melody of the first composition. It was a version for violin, cello, and piano, and it was premiered at the Munich Biennale.

Last year when I started writing my fourth string quartet, I couldn’t avoid using this melody again. In this instrumentation, I wanted to give new energy [to the song] and to see [it] in a new light. To me String Quartet No. 4, “A Cradle Song,” again has a different meaning—a positive meaning.

Hanna Kulenty’s String Quartet No. 4, “A Cradle Song,” was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman. Additional funds were provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.


Glenn Kotche (b. 1970)
Anomaly (2007; in seven movements, played without pause)

Glenn Kotche’s eclectic performances and original compositions have explored the creative use of rhythm and space through various percussion projects during the past 17 years. Born in Roselle, Illinois, Kotche attended the prestigious University of Kentucky Percussion Program, studying under James Campbell and graduating summa cum laude in 1994. Following graduation, his stints with various ensembles have resulted in participation on over 80 albums, including three solo records. Kotche’s third solo effort, Mobile (Nonesuch), was released to critical acclaim in 2006. The album features eight compositions for a wide range of instruments, including vibraphone, kalimba, cymbalom, drum kit, and hammered dulcimer.

Kotche is the subject of numerous features in a variety of media, including a cover feature in Modern Drummer for his work both as a solo percussionist and with the Grammy Award–winning rock band Wilco, with whom Kotche has played since 2001. Wilco’s subsequent accomplishments include the gold-selling album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; the double Grammy-winning a ghost is born; the live double-disc Kicking Television; and the 2007 release Sky Blue Sky, that debuted in the Billboard top 5.

Beyond Wilco, Kotche is one-third of the trio Loose Fur, along with Jim O’Rourke and Jeff Tweedy. He also performs regularly with the jazz experimental duo On Fillmore. In 2006 Kotche performed with fellow percussionist (and Bang on a Can All-Star) David Cossin at the Bang on a Can Marathon. Kotche was also commissioned by Bang on a Can to write a work for its All-Stars ensemble.

About Anomaly, Kotche writes:

After seeing a Kronos Quartet performance in early 2006, I got the idea to compose a string quartet. I wanted to do it from my perspective as a percussionist, treating the four members of the quartet like the varying relationships and roles of my limbs when I play the drum set. I was happily surprised when David Harrington, upon hearing my record Mobile, called me to request the exact same thing. He suggested that I write a piece that was ‘rhythmic with percussive colors’ and—much more dauntingly—‘something vital, beautiful, and wonderful.’

My closest uncle, Eddie Kotche, died around the time of that Kronos performance. The night that he passed, I went home and improvised a short melody on the vibraphone. This would become the dominant, recurring theme in what would eventually be titled Anomaly. This melody is present in some form in all seven movements.

My uncle was an anomaly. He had an incredible zest for life and an uproarious sense of humor, despite being severely challenged throughout his life by cerebral palsy—a condition that left him with very little control over his limbs. He was dependent on family for every daily function. After losing him I began to think about my reliance on physical motion and coordination for my self-expression and livelihood, and about the dichotomy between our physical circumstances. I thought about the physical as well as the emotional discomfort and pain that he must have felt on a daily basis. At the same time I remembered the love that he gave and received from his family and friends throughout his long, full life.

Though I never met Angel Stoyanof, Kronos was among the many people who loved him dearly. Angel brought people together; he was a collaborator who also had a zest for life. He got great joy from connecting people and watching the great things that resulted. Priscilla, Angel’s wife, told me that he mainly listened to jazz at the end of his life. I wonder if it was because of the music’s inherent freedom. From bebop to free jazz, big band to fusion, this music is steeped in human freewill. The improvisatory aspect of jazz allows for the personalities of the players to shine through. There are moments of absolute musical brilliance that are fleeting as the music propels forward. The same holds true for life. Amazing moments and beautiful experiences are occurring all around us—and then they’re gone. Jazz is also not usually one person’s vision, like a composition where many details are mapped out for the performer. Instead it’s often a collaboration—a network of personalities, spirit, and ideas. And that’s exactly how Angel’s friends and family came together to create this piece in his honor.

Glenn Kotche’s Anomaly was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Angel Stoyanof Commission Fund. Handbells have been provided by Sonos Handbell Ensemble.


George Crumb (b. 1929)
Black Angels

Thirteen Images from the Dark Land
I. Departure
1. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects
2. Sounds of Bones and Flutes
3. Lost Bells
4. Devil-music
5. Danse Macabre
II. Absence
6. Pavana Lachrymae
7. Threnody II: Black Angels!
8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura
9. Lost Bells (Echo)
III. Return
10. God-music
11. Ancient Voices
12. Ancient Voices (Echo)
13. Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects

Things were turned upside down. There were terrifying things in the air ... they found their way into Black Angels.” —George Crumb

George Crumb’s Black Angels, inspired by the Vietnam War, draws from an arsenal of sounds that include shouting, chanting, whistling, whispering, gongs, maracas, and crystal glasses. The score bears two inscriptions: “in tempore belli” (“in time of war”) and “Finished on Friday the Thirteenth, March, 1970.”

Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1929. He studied at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Berlin, and received a DMA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Crumb has been honored with festivals devoted to his music from Los Angeles to Moscow, Scandinavia to South America. He is the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, and was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 2004. He retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service. Awarded honorary doctorates by numerous universities, and the recipient of dozens of awards and prizes, he makes his home in Pennsylvania.

Crumb’s music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles, including references to the Western art-music tradition, hymns, folk music, and music of non-Western cultures. Many of Crumb’s works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical, and theatrical elements that are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores.

About Black Angels, Crumb writes:

Black Angels was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. The work portrays a voyage of the soul. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation), and Return (redemption).

The numerological symbolism of Black Angels, while perhaps not immediately perceptible to the ear, is nonetheless quite faithfully reflected in the musical structure. These ‘magical’ relationships are variously expressed: e.g., in terms of length, groupings of single tones, durations, patterns of repetition, etc. ... There are several allusions to tonal music: a quotation from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet; an original Sarabanda; the sustained B Major tonality of God-Music; and several references to the Latin sequence Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”). The work abounds in conventional musical symbolisms such as the diabolus in musica (“the interval of the tri-tone”) and the Trillo di Diavolo ( “Devil’s Trill,” after Tartini).

Kronos’ recording of Black Angels is available on the Nonesuch recording of the same name.

Kronos’ 2008 production of George Crumb’s Black Angels was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, with additional support from the Williams Center for the Arts / Lafayette College. Kronos’ original staged version was commissioned by Hancher Auditorium / University of Iowa in 1988.

For Black Angels:
Laurence Neff, Lighting and Stage Designer
Brian Mohr, Sound Designer
Calvin Ll. Jones, Technical Director

Kronos Quartet
·· David Harrington, Violin
·· John Sherba, Violin
·· Hank Dutt, Viola
·· Jeffrey Zeigler, Cello
For more than 30 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to expanding the range and context of the string quartet. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 40 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the world’s most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning hundreds of works and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos’ work has also garnered numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and “Musicians of the Year” (2003) from Musical America.

Kronos’ adventurous approach dates back to the ensemble’s origins. In 1973 David Harrington was inspired to form Kronos after hearing George Crumb’s Black Angels—a highly unorthodox, Vietnam War–inspired work that features bowed water glasses, spoken word passages, and electronic effects. Kronos then began building a compellingly diverse repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works by 20th-century masters (Bartók, Shostakovich, Webern), contemporary composers (Aleksandra Vrebalov, John Adams, Alfred Schnittke), jazz legends (Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk), and artists from even farther afield (rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov, avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn).

Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running, in-depth collaborations with many of the world’s foremost composers. One of the Quartet’s most frequent composer-collaborators is “Father of Minimalism” Terry Riley, whose work with Kronos includes the early Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector; Cadenza on the Night Plain, and Salome Dances for Peace; 2002’s Sun Rings, a multimedia, NASA-commissioned ode to the earth and its people, featuring celestial sounds and images from space; and, most recently, The Cusp of Magic, commissioned in honor of Riley’s 70th birthday in 2005. Kronos commissioned and recorded the three string quartets of Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, with whom the group has been working for nearly 20 years. The quartet has also collaborated extensively with such composers as Philip Glass, recording his complete string quartets and scores to films like Mishima and Dracula (a restored edition of the Bela Lugosi classic); Azerbaijan’s Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, whose works are featured on the full-length 2005 release Mugam Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Steve Reich, whose Kronos-recorded Different Trains earned a Grammy Award; Argentina’s Osvaldo Golijov, whose work with Kronos includes both compositions and extensive arrangements for albums like Kronos Caravan and Nuevo; and many more.

In addition to composers, Kronos counts numerous artists from around the world among its collaborators, including the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; legendary Bollywood “playback singer” Asha Bhosle, featured on Kronos’ Grammy-nominated CD, You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood; Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba; genre-defying sound artist and instrument builder Walter Kitundu; the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks; renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw; and the unbridled British cabaret trio, the Tiger Lillies. Kronos has performed live with the likes of icons Allen Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain, Modern Jazz Quartet, Tom Waits, David Barsamian, Howard Zinn, Betty Carter, and David Bowie, and has appeared on recordings by such diverse talents as Nine Inch Nails, Amon Tobin, Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky, Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado, Rokia Traoré, Joan Armatrading, and Don Walser.

Kronos’ music has also featured prominently in other media, including the films Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, 21 Grams, Heat, and True Stories; and dance, with noted choreographers Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Eiko & Koma setting pieces to Kronos’ music.

The Quartet spends five months of each year on tour, appearing in concert halls, clubs, and festivals around the world, including BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Barbican in London, WOMAD, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Shanghai Concert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging on disc. The ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch Records includes Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music lists; Kronos Caravan (2000), featuring musical “travels” that span North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East; Kronos Quartet: 25 Years (1998), a 10-disc anthology; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican culture; and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, the 2003 Grammy-winner.

Kronos’ recording and performances reveal only a fraction of the group’s commitment to new music. As a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, the Kronos Quartet / Kronos Performing Arts Association has commissioned more than 600 new works and arrangements for string quartet. Music publishers Boosey & Hawkes, and Kronos have released sheet music for three signature works—all commissioned for Kronos—in the first volume of the Kronos Collection, a performing edition edited by Kronos. The Quartet is committed to mentoring emerging professional performers, and in 2007 Kronos led its first Professional Training Workshop with four string quartets as part of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. One of Kronos’ most exciting initiatives is the Kronos: Under 30 Project, a unique commissioning and composer-in-residence program for composers under the age of 30, launched in conjunction with Kronos’ own 30th birthday in 2003. By cultivating creative relationships with such emerging talents and a wealth of other artists from around the world, Kronos reaps the benefit of 30 years’ wisdom while maintaining a fresh approach to music making that continues to be inspired by a new generation of composers and performers.


For the Kronos Quartet
Janet Cowperthwaite, Managing Director
Laird Rodet, Associate Director
Sidney Chen, Artistic Administrator
Scott Fraser, Sound Designer
Christina Johnson, Communications Manager
Nikolás McConnie-Saad, Administrative Assistant
Laurence Neff, Production Director
Kristen Reinhardt, Business Operations Manager

Glenn Kotche, Percussion