Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet play St George's Bristol on Wednesday 18 November, a night built around the 90th birthday of composer Steve Reich. The set draws on the minimalist works Reich wrote for the group over their forty-year relationship, including Different Trains, Triple Quartet and WTC 9/11, alongside selections from The Cave. Those are the Reich pieces, but the programme reaches beyond him: Jacob Garchik's arrangement Alabama (after Coltrane), Pérotin's Viderunt Omnes arranged by Kronos, and Cuong's Next Week's Trees.

On stage are David Harrington and Gabriela Díaz on violin, Ayane Kozasa on viola, and Paul Wiancko on cello. They're the current line-up of a San Francisco ensemble that's spent more than fifty years reimagining the string quartet, turning it into one of the most adventurous forces in contemporary music. The numbers behind that run are something of a record in themselves: thousands of concerts, more than seventy recordings and over 1,100 commissioned works. Among them is Kronos Fifty for the Future, an online library of fifty compositions offered free to musicians. They've also been named Doomsday Clock Artists in Residence for The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

It's a long history that sits behind a single night, and the programme reflects that. The Reich pieces come from a collaboration that's spanned four decades, so this is as much a look back at that partnership as it is a birthday celebration for the composer himself. The other works pull from different directions — the medieval polyphony of Pérotin, the jazz connection in Garchik's Coltrane arrangement, and the contemporary voice of Cuong.

Doors open at 7.00pm and the concert starts at 7.30pm in the Main Hall. Tickets are £28.00 to £50.40, which includes the booking fee. Seating is reserved, and the show is suitable for ages 14 and over.