"More than 50 years later, this ensemble has forever changed the shape and sound of classical music," Jon Fasman says in a feature on Kronos Quartet on The Economist's The Intelligence podcast. "Kronos has also delighted in breaking genre barriers. They’ve played pieces by some of the greatest living classical composers, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. But they’ve also played songs by Thelonius Monk and Jimi Hendrix. At its core, though, Kronos has dedicated itself to expanding chamber music repertoire ... Throughout it all, they’ve developed and performed scores rich with depth and meaning." You can hear the feature, including conversations with Kronos founder, artistic director, and violinist David Harrington and cellist Paul Wiancko, about nineteen minutes into the episode here via Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Kronos Quartet recently released several of its classic Nonesuch Records titles remastered in Spatial Audio on Apple Music Classical. Also part of the celebration, Nonesuch released the group’s award-winning 1990 album Black Angels—which the Evening Standard included among the “100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century”—on vinyl earlier this year; and released the first-ever vinyl edition of the acclaimed 1995 album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass, which the Washington Post called “an ideal combination of composer and performers," last year.

David Harrington stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Carlos Paredes, Dumisani Abraham Maraire, Astor Piazzolla, and Steve Reich. You can watch that here.