“Passionate, unflagging champions of new music, the [Kronos and Arditti string quartets] have, between them, commissioned nearly a thousand works; that achievement alone should earn them a lasting place in music history. They have also inspired a wave of young string quartets that specialize in contemporary music, including Ethel and the Meridian and Flux Quartets in America, and the Brodsky, Keller and Balanescu Quartets in Europe. Not to mention the salutary impact they have had on the classical music scene as a whole, which has become a little less staid and a little more open.