Arts & Events

On Thursday, December 2, the venerable Kronos Quartet returned to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall with a program of new works the group commissioned from various composers as part of their ongoing Fifty for the Future project. This project is dedicated to making new works for string quartet available online with the goal of training students and emerging musicians in contemporary approaches to string quartet music. The Kronos Quartet consists of David Harrington and John Sherba on violins, Hank Dutt on viola, and Sunny Yang on cello. The first half of their Zellerbach concert featured short works by various contemporary composers, while the second half featured guest artist Mahsa Vahdat on vocals in songs of her own composition set to poems by Iranian writers. 

Opening the concert was Maduswara by Indonesian musician Peni Candra Bini, arranged by Jacob Garchik. Daughter of an Indonesian master puppeteer, Peni Candra Bini is one of the few female musicians perfoming in Indonesia. Maduswara was an ethereal piece featuring pizzicato plucking by violist Hank Dutt. Two-thirds into this piece, cellist Sunny Yang laid down her cello and began striking a gong. Next came the first of two short pieces for string quartet by current Cal Performances artist in residence Angélique Kidjo. Entitled YanYanKliYan Senamido I & II, these works were here receiving their world premiere performances. The second piece by Angélique Kidjo, which closed the first half of this program, was especially ingratiating for its lively, exuberant writing. 

In between the Kidjo works we heard Terry Riley’s This Assortment of Atoms III, which included a lovely cello solo played by Sunny Yang, and Missy Mazzoli’s Enthusiasm Strategies. In the latter piece it was notable that the second violin, here played by John Sherba, often took the melodic lead. 

With no intermission, David Harrington introduced Iranaian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat. Possessed of a remarkable, bell-like voice of penetrating clarity, Mahsa Vahdat launched first into a song she composed, The Sun Rises, set to a poem by Forough Farrokhzad. Next came a song she set to a poem, Vanishing Lines, by Persian poet Hafez. Mahsa Vahdat’s third song was set to a poem, My Ruthless Companion, by Rumi. Where the first two songs were plaintive, the Rumi song was lively and playful. Next Mahsa Vahdat performed a song she set to one of her poems, Vaya, Vaya. She closed with two more songs set to poems by Rumi, Placeless and I was Dead.  

Throughout her performance she was beautifully accompanied by the Kronos Quartet. For the sole encore, Mahsa Vahdat chose to sing a lively Kurdish song, ending this intriguing concert on an exuberant note.