The Kronos Quartet performing Beyond Zero: 1914-1918. Courtesy photo.
The Kronos Quartet performing Beyond Zero: 1914-1918. Courtesy photo.
The Kronos Quartet's performance of Aleksandra Vrebalov鈥檚听Beyond Zero: 1914鈥�1918, Wednesday night (Oct. 8) at Macky Auditorium, was the one of the most powerful concert experiences I can recall.
Commissioned by Kronos to mark the centennial of the beginning of World War I,听Beyond Zero听is by turns beautiful, disturbing, haunting and almost unbearably intense鈥攁s befits the subject, one of the most brutal and tragic events of human history. Kronos鈥� performance was an inspired feat of musicianship and athletic endurance: once begun, the music scarcely lets up until the very end, with harsh, rhythmic chords propelling the piece from climax to climax.
There are times that the music becomes almost unendurable in its intensity, but that again is an expression of a war that was literally unendurable for millions. How else can you put into music the suffering of a continent and the agony of the soldiers in the trenches, year after year? Like a visit to the battlefields, it is sometimes disturbing, but it is a vital and deeply moving experience that enlarges the soul.
