Nonesuch Records

1990 [DDD]

{CD}

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Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed. In short, very much the sort of disc we've come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet. With an overall theme of war and persecution linking the works, the disc opens with George Crumb's Black Angels for electric string quartet; a vividly descriptive work inspired by the Vietnam war. It dates from 1970 (it was completed somewhat ominously on Friday, March 13th) and is described by Crumb as "a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world". Those familiar with Crumb's works will be aware of his fondness for asking his performers to double on other instruments, and here a gamut of sounds ranging from gongs, maracas and crystal glasses, to vocal sounds such as chanting, whistling and whispering combine with Crumb's colourful, imaginative string writing.