When George Crumb (1929-2022) passed away earlier this year, he left the world with a rich mix of ground-breaking compositions. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (1968) was among the most influential, recognised, and most frequently performed classical composers over the last 50 years, renowned for his hauntingly poetic sound world and stunningly beautiful handwritten scores. Composed in 1970 for an amplified string quartet, Black Angels is a fiendishly challenging piece in which themes of death, destiny and obsessive spirituality prevail, picking up vibrations from the then tense backdrop of the Vietnam War.
Based in Hong Kong and the Netherlands, Cong Quartet was the Winner of the 2019 Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo and won the Second Prize at the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition in Belgium. In the upcoming Around Twilight Lecture Demonstration, members Francis Chik, Sally Law, and Yan-ho Cheng will appear alongside guest violist Evan Robinson in conversation with Prof. Chan Hing-yan about Crumb’s artistry and creativity behind this contemporary masterpiece.
