Reich’s Different
Trains is fast becoming his most
popular work, certainly on disc. This
is at least the third recording of it,
though if we discount the orchestral
version, the Smith Quartet’s main competition
is from the group who commissioned it
(and so much other core modern repertoire),
the redoubtable Kronos Quartet.
The Smith Quartet also
has a formidable reputation in the world
of contemporary music and these excellent
performances can bear comparison with
the best. Indeed, there is a very complimentary
note by Reich in the booklet to this
new release, praising the Smiths and
the interest the group has taken in
concentrating on his music.
Different Trains
contains all that is familiar about
Reich’s style. You will find it hypnotically
mesmerising or maddeningly repetitive,
depending on your viewpoint. It is certainly
one of his more personal statements,
drawing upon childhood memories for
its basic inspiration. Technically it
has its roots in the earlier compositions
It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come
Out (1966) in its use of carefully
chosen speech patterns that intermingle
with live and pre-recorded string quartet
sounds. However, the speech extracts
that generate the musical material here
are what matters. Three very different
train journeys are conjured up – the
first (America: Before the War) shows
us the boy Reich being shunted between
his separated parents in Los Angeles
and New York in late 1930s and early
1940s. The second part (Europe: During
the War) shows what train journey he
might have taken as a Jewish boy had
he lived in Central Europe during the
same period. The third part (After the
War) tries to present an essentially
optimistic picture of a brighter future.
The voice extracts feature his elderly
Governess, a retired Pullman porter,
Holocaust survivors and a mixture of
train sounds recorded in the 1930s and
1940s. It’s essentially a multi-media
piece that can include video footage;
the Smiths have even performed it suspended
above the tracks of Cologne’s Hauptbahnhof,
which I bet Reich would have loved.
Easier to admire than love, there’s
no doubting the superb playing here,
the Quartet captured in vivid sound.
The short Duet
is dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin and scored
for two solo violins, four violas and
four cellos, here double tracked by
the Smiths. It’s more reflective and
gentle than some Reich (including the
other works here) and makes an admirable
contrast, a sort of reposeful interlude.
In the energetic Triple
Quartet, another Kronos commission,
the Smiths go a stage further in being
triple tracked. The basic inspiration
here is the finale of Bartók’s
Fourth Quartet, so we get an abundance
of Bartókian ideas put into the
minimalist melting pot; dissonance,
pulsating rhythm and repetition of short
melodic cells – an ideal starting point
for Reich’s style!
The disc is pretty
short measure, though one could argue
that with this sort of music a small
amount very well performed is preferable
to a huge unpalatable dose. Recording
really is exemplary and notes by Reich
himself all one could ask for. Given
the Kronos’s different coupling, Electric
Counterpoint, one could make the
case for this disc as the near-ideal
representation of Reich’s considerable
contribution to the string quartet genre.
If you’re into Reich, don’t hesitate.
Tony Haywood
The Smith Quartet 
