Even chamber music can be radically political.

Playing to a full audience in Hendricks Chapel last night, musical outfit Kronos Quartet played a composition with journalist I.F. Stone reading lines like

“There’s nothing more unholy than a holy war … When you live in America you think everything has a technological solution … The recruits are getting dumber, weapons more complicated.”

Even though the speech was recorded nearly 20 years ago, the song gains a vital new meaning in the current political climate.

The Kronos Quartet are chamber musicians that occupy the fringe of classical music. The quartet consists of two violinists, a violist, a cellist and a surplus of vivacity. Playing since 1973, they have collaborated with artists such as Allen Ginsberg and the Throat Singers of Tuva.

“What I like about them,” says senior fashion design major Liat Shore, “is that they are more like a real band; they each had their own characters, unlike a symphony.”

One indicator of their characters were their outfits — the violinist wore a crushed velvet shirt with a landscape print. The lead violinist Michael Harrington introduced their songs with a soft-spoken voice and bare-bones approach — mentioning only the title and the composer.

Kronos are capable of playing an extremely versatile range of music. Last night they started out the program with a sunny composition song by Mexican composer Severiano Briseno. It had a warmth and brightness that cheerfully transformed the atmosphere of the frigid Syracuse evening.

They later played another Mexican composer, Juan Garcia Esquivel, sometimes billed as “the king of space-age bachelor pad music.” His song “Miniskirt” incorporated sleazy cat-calls, random crowds of chuckles and the final whispered line “Ooh baby, you really blew my mind!” The Mexican theme comes from the record that they are currently promoting, Nuevo, which features music from south of the border.

The mood shifted violently when they played the composition from the David Aronofsky film “Requiem for a Dream.” As the song ended, the lights faded to a hellish orange-red glow, leaving the musicians’ dark silhouettes on stage. The lighting reflected the powerful and frightening spirit of the song.

The crowd was much younger than what you’d expect for traditional quartets, an attraction that comes from the diverse music they play that is popular today. The two encores included a cover of Icelandic musicians Sigur Ros and a song by an Indian film composer. The Sigur Ros piece was a beautiful, drifting rendition that evoked scenes of a frictionless world.

The highlight of the evening was a piece by composer Steve Reich. The musicians played with such verve that by the end, Michael Harrington’s bow had broken hairs hanging off like angel’s hair. It was a full, frenzied piece that included two separate quartets pre-recorded on top of the present outfit.

Other pre-recorded elements seemed intrusive. Like a Scott Johnson piece, there was an overlaid drum-machine that sounded like it had been transplanted from a bad 80s Bel Biv Devoe single.

What is most interesting about the Kronos Quartet is that they evade classification. They avoid obnoxiously generic genres like “world music” or “new classical” by playing songs like Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

The group simply loves music of all kinds, and last night’s concert was a testament to this passion.

Mike Neault is a English textual studies and television, radio and film major. E-mail him at [email protected].

Published on February 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm