Aaron Jay Kernis wrote his new string quartet “oasis” in nearly perfect solitude. It was December at Tippet Rise, an arts center and festival near Fishtail, Montana, and windswept snowdrifts made it impossible to enter or leave. The facilities sat vacant except for the most necessary core personnel. His piece is stark, taciturn, full of arid harmonies and jagged melodies that seem hewn from craggy rocks; the second movement glitters with the icy reflections of distant stars. “This quartet comes out of visceral experiences,” Kernis said. “Partly out of the landscape, and party out of the idea of an artistic oasis.”
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