Jon Johanning responded to Dave Lampson's demolition of the Kronos Quartet:

>It's like a reverse Emperor's New Clothes; everyone else can see they are
>naked, and only I can see the threads.  Could someone explain what is wrong
>with me? I'm beginning to doubt my sanity!

I'm not sure that there is anything wrong with Jon (whom I have long
regarded as one of the saner and wiser members of this list - along with
others too numerous to mention, of course).  I too fail to understand the
contempt - if that is not too strong a word - which many people of usually
sound judgement have for the KQ.

I've heard them live just once.  Almost exactly five years ago:  23 July
1994 at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.  The stage setup was very much the
same as that described by Ron Chaplin, and the programme included quartets
by Gubaidulina and Gorecki, a couple of pieces by Don Byron, some "typical"
KQ oddities, and Hendrix's Purple Haze.  I didn't care for everything they
played, but I recall being greatly impressed by their commitment to what
they were doing, their determination to communicate to the audience, and
their technical command and musicianship.  I hope that hasn't blown my MCML
credibility wide open once and for all.

>Dave used a term which strikes me more and more curioser as I think about
>it: "competitive repertoire." I guess this is another one of my personal
>quirks, certainly not shared by the majority of posters to the list, but
>I don't like to think of art, and especially music, as a competitive
>enterprise, like sports or business.

Then I'm in the minority again.  Music is not a part of the Olympic
Games, and I don't think of it in competitive terms.  That's why I rarely
contribute to "Best Recording of X" or "Best Contra-Bassonist (etc.)"
threads.  I'm much more interested in why a particular performance is the
way it is, and in what can be learned from it, than I am in ranking one
performance above another.  Sometimes the only things to be learned from a
particular performance are that (a) the performers are incompetent, and (b)
they are best avoided in future.  I haven't heard the KQ play "competitive
repertoire", which I take to mean the mainstream string quartet pieces from
Haydn to Shostakovich, so I can't give an opinion of them in that
territory; but I haven't heard anything from them, live or recorded, that
suggests incompetence to me.  I have to wonder if some of their critics
aren't importing irrelevant notions of what a string quartet "should" sound
like, rather than allowing themselves to respond freely to what the Kronos
Quartet are actually doing.  They are not a mainstream quartet, and there's
no point in judging them as if they are something they are not.

>Seek out the musical experiences that inspire and delight you, and forget
>about the rest.  Life is just to short for all this mean-spirited chatter.

Sound advice from Jon here.

>I get rather disheartened sometimes, looking through the many posts on
>this list in which people fiercely duel over whose performance of work X
>is "best." To me, this is all beside the point.

Jon, you're not alone.

Ian Crisp
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