Steve REICH (b. 1936)
WTC 9/11 (2010) [15:54]
Different Trains (1988) [26:59]
Quatuor Tana
rec. June 2016, Studio Acoustique.
MEGADISC MDC7877 [42:55]
Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 was written in
homage to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11th
September 2001, and uses and adapts pre-recorded voices from witnesses
and from the emergency services in action on the day. The music uses
and develops around the patterns of these spoken words.
Anyone alive at the time cannot help be reminded of the events of that
terrible day, and be moved by the content of this piece. You can listen
to it as a concert work, but it also has the duel impact of something
powerfully poetic.
Any string quartet approaching these works for recording will inevitably
be under the shadow of the excellent Kronos Quartet. The Nonesuch label
release of their version was produced in 2011, and this new recording
is by no means entering a flooded market. Those looking into comparisons
will note the difference in the use of illustration on the cover of
each release. Reich’s original belief was “that a piece
of music with documentary material from an event would best be matched
with a documentary photograph of that event”. This was too shocking
and controversial at the time, and so the Nonesuch illustration was
replaced by a plume of smoke. The “unambiguous cover photo”
for this release should be regarded in this context.
Different Trains deals with reminiscences around World War
II, and its classic recording is that by the Kronos Quartet on the Nonesuch
label from 1988. Subsequent recordings including this one can only have
relatively minor differences in terms of performance given the strict
boundaries set by the accompanying voice recordings. Quatuor Tana does
a very good job, the recording more spacious than that with the Kronos
Quartet, but the latter having better integration of those little solo
lines in the general texture and a closer connection with the pre-recorded
sounds. The balance with those sirens in Europe-During the War
could be more direct and oppressive, so while the voices are clear enough
there is more quartet sound in proportion with this newer recording.
Shuttling between the Kronos Quartet and Quatuor Tana in WTC 9/11
shows a similar shift in balance, with the voices more present and the
strings on a more equal footing - clearly audible, but illustrating
the text and inhabiting its expressive worlds more closely by occupying
the same space rather than the more elegant but less highly integrated
acoustic perspective offered here. These Quatuor Tana performances are
very good indeed and if you want both of these works on a single disc
then this is easily recommendable. For both pieces I would, however,
on a purely aesthetic level give a preference to the Kronos Quartet.
Dominy Clements
