Miró Quartet: Home album review — expert performances of two new works

Although it is the wave of new American operas that has made the biggest impact, there is plenty of other musical creativity going on in the US. The “Big Five” orchestras and others have been commissioning some vivid contemporary works and here are two recently composed string quartets.

The Miró Quartet’s programme ranges from near-minimalism to unashamedly romantic. To attract listeners, the new works stand alongside two of the most beloved pieces of American music, George Walker’s Lyric for strings and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for strings, outpourings of heartfelt emotion.

The album is marketed under the title Home, which is also the title Kevin Puts has given to a 15-minute work inspired by the plight of Syrian refugees. As it describes the pain of being forcibly driven from one’s home, the music follows a journey from the deep-seated comfort of repeated chords to the anguish of dislocation, a taut and concentrated structure.

The other new work is Microfictions (volume 1) by Caroline Shaw, inspired by the science-fiction writing of TR Darling published on X, formerly Twitter. The micro-texts are spoken at the start of each movement and from those emerge nuggets of music, quickly developed, until the last (the songs of the mountains “from years and miles below”) finds a deep, dark, unsettling peace.

The Miró Quartet offers expert performances of its pair of commissions. The Walker and Barber favourites, the latter heard in the context of Barber’s complete String Quartet in B Minor, Op 11, make warm-hearted interludes to two high-quality new works.

★★★★☆

‘Home’ is released by Pentatone