US string quartet to play in blackout

The JACK quartet have let it be known that, next month in Chicago, they will perform Georg Friedrich Haas’s Ninth String Quartet in total darkness, according to the composer’s instructions.

Haas, an Austrian oddball, writes: ‘It seemed to be a risky, dangerous experiment to write a piece with a 45-minute minimum duration, which has to be memorized and performed without any visual cues or communication… Composing for darkness is fundamentally different from traditional composing: one does not directly score the piece – one composes a process for individuals, forced to perform in isolation, having only aural contact with their partners.’

Mr Haas at play.

London’s Wigmore Hall will also stage a dark string quartet in February. It’s the in thing.