Sound advice: in an exclusive interview with Kronos Quartet's Hank Dutt, the violist links the personal to the professional.

If two's company and three's a crowd, is four pandemonium? Not if you ask the Kronos Quartet. Music boasts no professional relationships more intimate than those between the members of this San Francisco-based string ensemble. And this fall Kronos celebrates its 25th anniversary, having survived and prospered with the same personnel for the past 20 years. In that time the organization has performed or commissioned more than 400 scores, made more than 30 records, receives six or seven unsolicited scores a week and has revolutionized the art and manner of string-quartet playing, reaching out to an international audience hungry for contemporary music with a twist. Kronos performs nothing but works of this century and modern arrangements of older material, a decision made decades ago by founding artistic director David Harrington in blissful agreement with second violin John Sherba, cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, and violist Hank Dutt. This is the quartet that crossed over before almost anyone else in classical music even considered doing so. Their mod clothing and dramatic lighting have been admired but never really emulated.

Kronos operates on a $1.6-million budget, em ploys an administrative staff of six, and tours globally up to seven months a year. The quartet will celebrate its anniversary with a three-concert series this fall at Brooklyn Academy of Music, a four-concert set in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater (where vocalist Diamanda Galas will guest), and single dates throughout the country. In addition, on October 21 Nonesuch will release a ten-CD Kronos set consisting of reissues, rerecordings, and new pieces.

"We found," recalls Dutt, "that when we split our repertory between the romantics and the modems, our audiences were sharply divided. One group wanted to hear the old stuff, and the other wanted the new."

Dutt, a 46-year-old gay man from Quincy, Ill., joined Kronos in 1977 thanks to a tip from the departing cellist, and he in turn alerted his friend Jeanrenaud about the opening in the cello chair. He has found that at some point his professional and personal relationships have fed off each other. With the Kronos Quartet--which absorbs more new music than any other group--the situation is exacerbated.

"A cynical teacher once said that a string quartet was like a bad, sexless marriage," notes Dutt. "In this setup you can't be a loner and survive. From the group dynamics of a quartet I have learned that you have to both take criticism and give it. You must defend your ideas during rehearsals--if only to clarify them for yourself. This applies to any relationship. I know the others well, and I know when you can't force an issue."

Dutt praises the supportiveness of his colleagues, who have been there when he needed them--especially when Kevin, his partner of 14 years, died of AIDS-related complications in 1993. That tragedy inspired Bob Ostertag to compose one of Kronos's biggest and angriest hits, "All the Rage," a stunning jeremiad against complacency. For the new album, says Dutt, Ken Benshoof has written "Song of 20 Shadows," another tribute to Dutt's late partner. "It has an extended viola solo," says the musician. "And even five years after Kevin's death, it was difficult for me to play."

Ulrich is the dance and classical-music critic for the San Francisco Examiner.