Kronos Quartet

Thu., April 19, 7:30 p.m., with Singing City Choir, Kimmel Center

by A.D. Amorosi

classical

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The San Francisco string quartet noted for bringing high art to low places (what classical ensemble covered Hendrix before them?) has had deep relationships with several modern composers (Henryk Gorecki, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, to name a few). But David Harrington, John Sherba and Hank Dutt (cellist Jeffrey Zeigler's the new guy) have been most intimate with Terry Riley, the minimalist composer whose experiments in delay, repetition and looping have made him an innovator beyond reproach. But to follow someone into space as Kronos does with Riley's NASA-commissioned Sun Rings song cycle is brave. The 10 "spacescapes" are as rousing as a Copeland score yet gnawingly haunted and holy. Perhaps you can blame the swelling choral vocals (in Philly, Singing City Choir will accompany Kronos) and the rapturous strings. Or maybe it's the noise of deep space as recorded by NASA — lightning whistles, magnetic field booms, the sound of stars — that makes Sun Rings so piercing.

Thu., April 19, 7:30 p.m., $28-$34, with Singing City Choir (Jeffrey Brillhart, conductor), Kimmel Center, 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.