‘Kronos Quartet’

The Kronos Quartet is a living legend when it comes to the string quartet. Its recordings of works of the pillars of minimalism, such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt, are nothing short of mythical. As Ars Musica’s guest of honour on the occasion of the 30 years of the festival, the Californian quadriga invites you to discover works that have been newly written and arranged for it by Riley and Glass, amongst others. The Quartet also interprets Steve Reich’s Different Trains, an illustrious work for string quartet and magnetic tape that they were the first to record on disc. This work, which is part way between a sound documentary and an instrumental work creates a powerful parallel between testimonies of American commuters in the 1940s and survivors of the Holocaust trains.