'Home', we all know what it means, but it is not or is not everyone's 'home', let alone a 'warm' home. Home sweet home, we know that too, something like 'east west home best'. Large parts of the world are on fire, the stream of displaced persons knows no end.
The Miró Quartet feels artistically at home in any case with the music of these five composers, all Americans, four of them – by chance or not – winners of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. George Walker was even the first black American to receive the prize. Only Harold Arlen, as far as I know, has fallen outside the prizes in this respect.
The fact that on this album only the second part of Walker's First String Quartet is represented is not so strange incidentally (even though there would have been enough room for the complete piece): just like that famous Adagio from Barber's String Quartet op. 11, it is also this second part that soon after its creation began to lead its own life as Lyric for Strings. And indeed: it is lyrical, doubly and trebly so. In the cd booklet, the ensemble confesses that it only learned of its existence shortly before the recording, which may raise some surprise, but this intensely 'lyrical' performance fortunately suggests otherwise.
The performance of the other works is also impressive: the Miró feels at home in these such different styles as the proverbial fish in water, starting with the opening work from which the album title is taken: Kevin Puts' suite Home. Violist John Largess recalls in the booklet that Puts had Syrian refugees in mind when he set about composing, but there is so much warm intensity expressed in it that I can imagine every refugee in it. In the opening section (the key C major seems to symbolize coming home or being at home) there are – whether consciously conceived or not – unmistakable reminiscences of that well-known melody from Schindler's List. The closing section wrapped in microtonality unfolds like a veritable whirlwind, harmonically and rhythmically heavily seasoned, and indeed, as indicated by the composer: 'dangerously fast'. That no notes have nevertheless fallen off the music stands is a miracle.
Caroline Shaw, the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner ever, is also no stranger in our country, although the performance of her Partita for 8 Voices (with which she won that prize) does go quite far back: to the Holland Festival of 2019. Microfictions – here we hear the six parts of the first set – has as its source of inspiration both the surrealist paintings of Joan Miró (the quartet is named after him) and the interactive science fiction of writer and journalist T.R. Darling (you can find it here on X, formerly Twitter).
Caroline Shaw in her explanation during the world premiere of Microfictions Vol. I (Photo: Arts Laureate)
It was the Miró Quartet that was responsible for the world premiere, on November 14, 2021 in Shriver Hall, Washington DC. Shaw was present and gave an extensive explanation of the work (all six parts were covered), whereby she also recalled that the 'naturalistic' piece had been created in collaboration with the quartet members. It was in the middle of the corona period and the associated lockdowns, but 'teleconference' provided a solution.
Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen in an arrangement for string quartet by William Ryden forms the most charming conclusion to this fascinating program. The piece has something 'homely' about it and besides: we all know it.
The Miró also collaborated with Kevin Puts, which gives this album a certain authority. It is a pity, however, that it remained at the aforementioned second part, Molto Adagio, from Walker's String Quartet: there would have been enough room for the complete work. But as far as this particularly beautiful album is concerned, the glass is more than half full, which is something at least.