An Táin Theatre, Dundalk, Co Louth Mon 8pm €20 01-8721122; Radisson SAS Hotel, Galway Tues 8pm €30 091-566577
New music’s most fashionable string quartet is back in Ireland this week. The iconic Kronos Quartet play gigs in Dundalk and Galway, with completely different programmes each evening.
Monday's Dundalk programme brings performances of Chinese composer Tan Dun's Ghost Operaand Californian Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic. Fans with good memories will remember that the group's planned performance of the latter in Cork (when the city was European Capital of Culture in 2005) had to be cancelled due to illness.
Ghost Operais the most important work by China's most successful composer yet to be performed in Ireland – Tan Dun provided music for the Beijing Olympics, and won an Oscar for his score for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Both pieces in the Dundalk concert feature Chinese pipa-player Wu Man.
Tuesday's programme at the Galway Arts Festival includes two works by with connections to New York's Bang On a Can composers: Potassium by Michael Gordon, and an arrangement by David Lang of Clint Mansell's music for Darren Aronofsky's film Requiem for a Dream. Also on offer are pieces by Glenn Branca and Bryce Dessner.
