Kronos Quartet Howl U.S.A.

What can you say about the Kronos Quartet--the most celebrated maverick chamber ensemble in the overdressed world of classical music--as they take on a 25-minute musical accompaniment to Allen Ginsberg reading his poem "Howl"? First, they have all of Ginsberg's trappings down cold, from the dry wit and ironic commentary on 1950s U.S. culture, gay and straight, the post-Walt Whitman celebration of Ginsberg himself, and, alas, the sorrow at seeing the "best minds ... destroyed by madness." Kronos's music was written by Lee Hyla, and it walks, stomps, and canters as Ginsberg reads. The CD has three other spoken-word and music performances, all of them spectacular: Michael Daugherty's "Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover," replete with Hoover's tape-manipulated voice; Harry Partch's scintillating "Barstow," with a chorus of Ben Johnston's multiplied, dissonant voice; and Scott Johnson's "Cold War Suite," putting I.F. Stone's voice to the music. The music's complicated and jostling, rightly interrogating the narratives and invoking great chatter and clatter. --Andrew Bartlett