Search - Kronos Quartet :: The Music of Vladimir Martynov

Their first release since 2009, The Music of Vladimir Martynov includes three works written for Kronos by the leading Russian composer: "The Beatitudes" (1998, rescored for Kronos, 2006), "Schubert-Quintet (Unfinished)" (2009), and "Der Abschied" (2006). Kronos' artistic director and founder David Harrington says Martynov's music "straddles various points of musical history and time; the music seems to me to reflect and absorb humanity in such a beautiful way."


Born in Moscow in 1946, Martynov was the son of a well-known musicologist and writer. He studied music from a young age and attended the Conservatory before expanding his musical pursuits beyond the traditional classical canon and into folk songs, early music, avant-garde, rock, and electronic music. In 1979, he entered the Spiritual Academy at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, where he worked on preserving and restoring traditional Russian Orthodox chant. He returned to composition in the 1990s with a new style that combined the traditions of American minimalism with the repetitive chant of Russian Orthodoxy.