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Silly noise is every concert-goers worst nightmare
• THE scenario described by your reviewer (Minimalism? This performance was the least I expected – Music, Classical and Jazz, August 2) is every concert-goer’s worst nightmare – sublimely talented musicians reduced to making silly noises in the name of art.
But your reviewer is selective in his recollection of the evening. True, David Harrington, first violin with the Kronos Quartet, was playing sleigh bells at one point – during the first movement of Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic, he, as the group’s leader and de facto conductor, provided the complex, 108-beat, pulse of the piece on shaker and kick-drum.
But your reviewer neglects to mention the complex interlocking patterns woven by the remaining trio of violin/viola/cello over Harrington’s percussion.
And yes, the cellist did at one point “play with” a squeeze toy – this was but one of a number of childhood/nursery references built into Riley’s six-movement piece, which explored themes based on what sounded like fragments of children’s lullabies (and during which the cellist, for the most part, played his cello).
The reviewer clearly feels cheated that Harrington – “arguably one of the world’s greatest violinists” – was instead playing sleigh bells, but makes no mention of his blistering, emotive violin playing in the remaining five movements of Riley’s composition.
And no mention of Wu Man, whose pipa (a Chinese lute-like instrument) and plaintive vocal added yet another layer of melody to these already complex pieces. Perhaps your reviewer is pioneering a new style of minimalist journalism.
To these ears, Riley has moved far beyond so-called “minimalism” with this new work, and the Kronos Quartet are to be applauded for the immediacy and spontaneity they bring to their live performance – a lot of which would
be lost if you were listening to a recording at home.
PAUL HACKWORTH
King Henry’s Road, NW3
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