William Jenks wrote:

>Please recommend a few "essential" 20th century chamber works and a
>recording or two of each.

Perhaps the string quartets of Holmboe and Henze would qualify.  I've been
listening to both the past few months and am finding them very interesting
and compelling.  The Holmboe quartets are on three separate Marco
Polo/Dacapo discs, and the Henze are on a 2-cd Wergo set performed by the
Arditti String Quartet.

The discussion concerning the Kronos Quartet has been enjoyable.  They
don't figure much in my musical horizons - I have one Kronos disc with
no desire for another.  They're just not serious enough for my taste -
too much "messing around".  In the disc I have, the last track is devoted
to the closing of a door.  Maybe at age 20 I would find this cute or
meaningful, but at 51 years of age I just call this "garbage" and a waste
of recording material and my time.  Also, Dave is correct that the Kronos
appeal has NOT increased interest in classical music.  It has increased
the number of chamber groups that appear to be Kronos wanna-be's like
the Brodsky Quartet.

I want to emphasize that I have nothing against the technical levels
of these groups, just their desire to exude some kind of "hip" persona.
There's a time for sophmoric activities and a time for music - in my world,
they are mutually exclusive to one another.

Don Satz
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