Kronos

Tonight I go to hear the Kronos Quartet here at the Eastman (George, that is) Theatre. It has been a long time since I've heard them play - probably 15 or so years. I recall once going to a Kronos performance at Ravinia on the north shore of Chicago. It was an inspired and inspiring performance by a leather-clad quartet to an audience of pretty staid blue-haired types with just a few younger folks like myself interspersed in the crowd. Here is the program for tonight:

Michael Gordon - Potassium *
Unknown (arr. Kronos, transc. Ljova) - Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me +
Ram Narayan (arr. Kronos, transc. Ljova) - Raga Mishra Bhairavi +
Dan Visconti -Love Bleeds Radiant *
Sigur R's - Flugufrelsarinn (The Fly Freer) +
Derek Charke - Cercle du Nord III *
Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik) - Lullaby +
Traditional(arr.Kronos, transc. Ljova)- Tusen Tankar (A Thousand Thoughts)+
Steve Reich- Triple Quartet *

None of this is familiar to me, but that is much of the fun - walking into a concert that will be more or less completely foreign and seeing what happens.
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PS: Well, the concert was terrific. A not terribly full house. The program was varied, ranging from subdued to crackling and adventuresome. One of the number was an unattributable Iraqi composition, another a traditional Iranian Lullaby. And in case one was inattentive to the political theme, the first of the Quartet's three encores was a galvanizing rendition of the"Star Spangled Banner" a la Jimi Hendrix.