Artist: Kronos Quartet
Title: Black Angels
Year Of Release: 1990
Label: Nonesuch
Genre: Classical
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log,scans)
Total Time: 61:32
Total Size: 268 Mb
Tracklist:
George Crumb - Black Angels Thirteen Images from the Dark Land (1970) [18:15]
01. Mvt. I Departure [5:37]
02. Mvt. II Absence [5:25]
03. Mvt. III Return [7:13]
Thomas Tallis
04. Spem in Alium (Sing And Glorify) late 16the century [8:52]
40-Part Motet Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) arranged by Kronos (1989)
István Mártha
05. Doom. A Sigh (1989) [10:54]
Charles Ives
06. They are There! (1917/1942) Fighting for the People's New Free World [2:47]
Kronos part arranged by John Geist (1990)
Dmitri Shostakovich - Quartet No. 8 (1960) [20:00]
07. Mvt. I Largo [4:57]
08. Mvt. II Allegro molto [2:36]
09. Mvt. III Allegretto [4:19]
10. Mvt. IV Largo [4:11]
11. Mvt. V Largo [3:57]
Performers:
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington - Violin
John Sherba - Violin
Hank Dutt - Viola
Joan Jeanrenaud - Cello
This disc is supposed to hurt. Just look at the program: it starts with Crumb's Black Angels for electric string quartet, a work that is the aural equivalent of Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and ends with Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8, a work that is either the aural equivalent of a monument to the victims of war and fascism written in the ruins of Dresden or the musical equivalent of a suicide note written before the composer joined the Communist Party. With the spooky and evocative performances of Thomas Tallis Spem in Alium, Istvan Marta's Doom. A Sigh, and Charles Ives' There They Are!, this disc is so painful it could be the soundtrack for an unmade Kubrick movie.
The question is, is this disc supposed to hurt so much? The Kronos Quartet is a harsh and aggressive ensemble with an angular approach to rhythm and structure and an overwhelming need to assert its individual and collective identity. It tears into the howling notes that begin Black Angels with the ferocity of The Furies and they don't take the pedal off the metal until the last gasp of the final Largo of the Eighth. Yet surely this is the intent of the music: Crumb's Black Angels is as violently anti-war as Shostakovich's Eighth is fatally anti-totalitarian, and any performance that doesn't hurt with the deep pain of righteous vehemence would hardly be worth hearing. Nonesuch's 1990 digital sound is so in your face that it's in your skull.
