Most likely I won’t be able to describe in a worthy manner what I was feeling
during the Kronos Quartet that happened in the Yerevan Opera Theatre on 29th
of April this year. I won’t be able because, as someone said many years ago (and
they are still trying to find out who exactly and when) – "Talking about
music is like dancing about architecture". One had to be there to feel it.
I succeeded in describing concerts in the past, and maybe I will in the future,
but this specific one was different.
To find a way out of this situation I decided to bring in the list of
the works they performed that night, supporting them with short comments and
some YouTube links. Some of them are studio recordings, others played live,
sometimes even played by previous line-up. With this I am hoping to create at
least some idea on what happened on that night.
1. Bryce Dessner - Aheym (Homeward) (link)
Nerve from A to Z. Basically, that was enough for the audience to
understand who they deal with.
2. Laurie Anderson (arr. Jacob Garchik) - Flow (link)
Honey to one’s soul. So quiet, so calm.
The audience expands not only their sights on Kronos Quartet, but on music
in general.
4. Geeshie Wiley (arr. Jacob Garchik) - Last Kind Words (link)
They introduced this title as a “song”, but damn!, they performed it like
a song!
5. Ramallah Underground (arr. Jacob Garchik) - Tashweesh (link)
This piece is still somewhere in my sub-consciousness.
6. Clint Mansell (arr. David. Lang) - Lux Aeterna (from Requiem for a
Dream) (link)
I could not even dream to listen this live performed by them! This theme
takes me by the throat each time I hear it, starting from the very first time,
although it did not deal with “Requiem for a Dream” movie (that was a trailer
to “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”).
7. Terry Riley - Good Medicine (from Salome Dances for Peace) (link)
I listen to it and I see myself running down the green fields and up
the hills, then don in the valleys, butterflies around me.... Good Medicine –
the title speaks for itself!
Intermission
8. Vladimir Martynov - The Beautitudes (link)
Relief, peace, tranquility, light... This is the music one would want
to listen to in his or her last minutes.
9. Mary Kouyoumdjian - Silent Cranes (World Premiere, hence no link for this one)
i. Slave to Your Voice
ii. You Did Not Answer
iii. [With Blood Soaked Feathers]
iv. You Flew Away
As it was mentioned above, it was world premiere of “Silent Cranes”.
Her author Mary Kouyoumdjian is one of those who were selected through the
Kronos: Under 30 Project. This 35-minute long composition in 4 parts is homage in
memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. A special video has
been prepared for it – collage of photographs, ornamental patterns, drawings.
The performance was also supported with the voices of the eyewitnesses telling
about those tragic times.
Maybe the first piece of the second half (see above) was perfectly
chosen, maybe it was due to the video, maybe our history speaks in us, or maybe
something else, but this composition was something bigger that just something
played by Kronos Quartet. Many people later told me that there were moments
when they were forgetting about some four people playing something on the
stage, and that those are them who flood the huge hall with music and emotions
with their two violins, alto and cello. By the way, our audience has
significantly grown up as compared to what I saw eleven years ago. Today there
was no noise, no distracting chatter, no indignant snobs, no cynical jokes....
There was no place for that here!
And when the last fourth part of the “Cranes” ended I witnessed the
Magic, on which I nevertheless wrote a comment on Kronos Quartet Facebook page,
wrote all I could the next morning. Those were my pure emotions, which I am not
going to rewrite now, four days later.
1,200 hall was packed.... in the end the lights went dim, the music
echoed away, darkness fell on the stage and in the hall.... 5 seconds... 10
seconds..... 20..... SILENCE! not a single breath was heard.... not a single
breath!.... a few more seconds..... lights slowly came back.... the Quartet
frozen, and so are we...... not a single breath!..... The Quartet is gradually
coming back to reality, and so are we..... SILENCE!.....
..............
And then the hall burst in standing ovation......
A True Masterpiece!
Just like it was the last time, we got an Encore. They performed
mournful but so important at that moment “Wa Habibi”, thus bringing us back to
the world from which we entered this hall.
But we were already different when we were exiting it.
Many many thanks to Lilia Margaryan for her “without whom it would
never be” kind of help.
