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
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