Preview: Balanescu Quartet

Challenging any preconceptions that string quartets can only exist within strict and stodgy confines, Alexander Bălănescu fuses contemporary classical music with everything from pop, jazz and folk to digital electronica. With an endless desire to experiment in all aspects of film, theater and even ballet production, he has become one of the most innovative violinists of modern times.

Born in 1954, Bălănescu left his native Romania for Israel in 1969 and went on to study violin at London's Trinity College of Music and then at The Juilliard School in New York City. He soon immersed himself in writing film scores and achieved acclaim for Angels and Insects by Philip Haas, the Canal Plus comedy-thriller Le Poulpe, Guido Chiesa's Il partigiano Johnny and Renny Bartlett's Eisenstein.

Bălănescu led the Michael Nyman Band for 15 years and also worked with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble before joining the esteemed Arditti Quartet, all of which helped him perfect his performance.

"Michael Nyman has been a major influence on my career and musical thinking," Bălănescu says. "In the late 1970s, when I had just finished my studies and was working very much in the area of contemporary music, hearing his music was a revelation. Here was somebody who was working with tonality and whose music seemed to touch on different areas of music without losing its strong roots in classical music."

In 1987, Bălănescu formed the quartet. Featuring his wife, Katie Wilkinson, on viola, James Shenton on violin and Nick Holland playing cello, the depth and scope of the Balanescu Quartet shines through on the half-dozen albums and several more recordings on which the group has appeared. Possessed, from 1992, and 1994's Luminitza particularly stand out. With the former, Bălănescu had the madcap idea of applying string arrangements to Kraftwerk gems such as "The Model" and "Autobahn." It was a gamble that paid off.

"In the early 1990s, we had the seemingly impossible idea to recreate some of the Kraftwerk songs for string quartet," he says. "I wanted to show that the string quartet, although it is such a classical formation, unchanged for several hundred years, could keep its position at the cutting edge of new music. We wanted to achieve a completely different sound to Kraftwerk, and also to that of the traditional quartet, using unusual techniques. These ideas were developed under studio conditions, where we were free to explore the different sound worlds we were creating and to improvise freely. The subject material is very strong: great melodies, harmonies and rhythm. It has been very interesting, and we had great fun in creating this alternative sound world."

The question was what the electronic pioneers Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider would make of the project.

"We didn't have any communication with Kraftwerk before or during the work on the album," Bălănescu says. "But, about a month after the album was released, we were very surprised to receive a fax from the famous Kling Klang Studios saying how much they loved our cover versions. Later on we had the opportunity to perform on successive nights, Kraftwerk and the Balanescu Quartet, in the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, and it was then that I became very good friends with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. It's a friendship that I value enormously."

Bălănescu can point out many other highlights from the quartet's 26 years.

"It is difficult to choose," he says. "However, I would mention some very inspiring collaborations: for instance, with David Byrne over the years, but especially a residency we had together at the Knitting Factory in New York; a UK tour supporting the Pet Shop Boys when we had the opportunity to meet audiences new to our music; successful concerts in New York's Lincoln Center, London's Southbank, Milan's La Scala and the Opera House in Sydney. Also in Australia, I remember an extraordinary week at the Adelaide Festival, where we had 10 performances - every night performing with the Meryl Tankard Dance Company, lunchtime concerts as well as closing the festival late at night in an open-air club. Didn't have time to sit down for a meal that week! Most recently, we were very touched by the warmth and passion of a very well-informed public in Mexico."

In Prague, part of the set will focus on his native Romania. "As I mature as an artist, my roots somehow are becoming more and more important," Bălănescu says. "The traditional music of Eastern Europe is the main source of inspiration for my music, as well as guiding my approach to performance. My models are Bartók, Stravinsky and Enescu, composers who have studied and absorbed the traditional music of their countries and have fashioned a personal language on the basis of that influence."

James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com