Aheym – Kronos Quartet plays music by Bryce Dessner

ANTI 87296-2

The Grammy-award winning Kronos Quartet devotes itself to the new music of Bryce Dessner on this recent release. Based in New York City, Dessner, is a composer and performer, who is rising meteorically in the music world.

AheymCDcoverSome view Dessner as a pop artist, as he is a guitarist, however his intellect and training (he has a Master of Music degree from Yale) have enabled him to transcend tags to immerse himself in contemporary “classical” music.

The four works on this disc draw on personal ideas to create new musical responses. Aheym, meaning “homeward” in Yiddish, is a glance at his Jewish origins and a commemoration of a particular NY park. Little Blue Something is inspired by Czech folk music, and Tenebre, with pre-recorded vocals by Sufjan Stevens, is based on the Holy Week service of extinguishing candles. In Dessner’s hands, it takes on the more general (and inverse) view of moving from darkness to light. The beautiful choral tones of the Brooklyn Youth Choir feature in Tour Eiffel, along with electric guitar, piano, percussion and string quartet.

The Kronos Quartet’s performance is remarkably dynamic and intelligent. It is biting, edgy stuff, aligning with the thrust of this Quartet, which continues to explore new composers who have new things to say.

(This review was published in Fine Music magazine, March 2014. http://issuu.com/finemusic/docs/fine_music_magazine_march_2014)

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