textura

Miró Quartet: Hearth
Pentatone

Miró Quartet ended 2025 by following its acclaimed Ginastera String Quartets release with a collection designed for the holiday season. The detail's key: while it does include a generous number of beloved carols, Hearth isn't a Christmas album per se but rather a project honouring multiple traditions, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa among them. To that end, “The First Noël,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Jingle Bells” are offset by arresting treatments of the Appalachian folk song “I Wonder as I Wander” and the traditional Hebrew hymn “Ma'oz Tzur (Rock of Ages)” by Reena Esmail and Sam Lipman, respectively, The scope of material on the fifteen-track release thus reaches far beyond Christmas classics into other realms, the result a true album for the seasonal holiday.

Key too is how the selections came to be. Rather than Miró Quartet choosing the material, violinists Daniel Ching and William Fedkenheuer, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele instead asked their composer friends to choose a holiday tune and imaginatively rework it with a new arrangement for string quartet. Many of the pieces do therefore sound familiar, but in being newly adorned they also sound fresh. A scan of the artists involved reveals that some of today's most compelling composers took part, among them Clarice Assad, Kevin Puts, Anna Clyne, Paola Prestini, and Gabriel Kahane. Adding to the warm and personal tone of the project, the release booklet includes commentaries by the composers on the works they contributed and the reasons why they were selected.

Memorable moments are abundant, and much pleasure's derived from hearing long-familiar melodies sparkling anew. The singing ones animating Assad's spirited update of “In Dulci Jubilo” fall into that category, as do those in Karl Mitze's rousing, multi-faceted version of “Deck the Halls,” which sees the traditional Welsh tune (“Nos Galan”) augmented with nods to fiddle and Celtic music. In coupling bowing and pizzicato, Michi Wiancko similarly makes “Jingle Bells” feel reborn and amplifies its enduring charm.

Many a composer honours the original by retaining its tone, the tender and dignified rendition of “The First Noël” by Puts a case in point and Alex Berko's tremulous treatment of “In the Bleak Midwinter,” its music created by Gustav Holst to Christina Rossetti's poem, another. Jeff Scott likewise aspired to express the quiet dignity, gentle sorrow, and stillness of the traditional Irish carol “Wexford Carol (Carúl Loch Garman)” in his own string quartet arrangement and succeeded with a deeply affecting interpretation. No piece is more heartfelt and true to the original's spirit than Joel Love's “Silent Night.”

In one of the album's most striking adaptations, Esmail's update of “I Wonder as I Wander” merges Appalachian folk melodies with Hindustani ornamentation. Like Esmail's, Derrick Skye's “We Three” is a “transcultural reimagining” (his words) of “We Three Kings” in its inventive wedding of Assyrian melodic ornamentation and West African rhythm gestures. Inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected places, in the case of Michael Begay's version of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” from Twisted Sister's intertwining of the eighteenth century classic with the band's own “We're Not Gonna Take It” (the heavy chords with which it ends a presumed nod to the one-hit-wonders).

Two contributions give the appearance of being wholly original works, but they're not. Clyne's “Mother's Lullaby” uses the English Christmas carol “Coventry Carol” as a springboard for her haunting, austere, and somewhat Pärt-like update, and Hyung-ki Joo's “Songs of Christmas Past” weaves more than twenty familiar tunes into an eight-minute-long, vocals-punctuated tapestry (among them, “Deck the Halls,” “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and even a few from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker sneaking their way in).

Anyone who's experienced the holiday season knows there's joy but melancholy too, and the set-list for Hearth reflects that. Some of the material might be easier for players of Miró Quartet's calibre to execute than a piece by, say, Boulez or Berio, but the group brings the same precision, conviction, and humanity to Hearth as anything else it's recorded. As we've come to expect from this ensemble, the pieces, many of them bite-sized miniatures, are impeccably rendered. 2025 already feels long behind us and, sadly, so too does the holiday season, but this sixty-eight-minute collection is commendable for both its musical content and the feelings of hope, gratitude, and connection it reawakens.

February 2026


	Miró Quartet: Hearth Pentatone Miró Quartet ended 2025 by following its acclaimed Ginastera String Quartets release with a collection designed for the holiday season. The detail's key: while it does include a generous number of beloved carols, Hearth isn't a Christmas album per se but rather a project honouring multiple traditions, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa among them. To that end, “The First Noël,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Jingle Bells” are offset by arresting treatments of the Appalachian folk song “I Wonder as I Wander” and the traditional Hebrew hymn “Ma'oz Tzur (Rock of Ages)” by Reena Esmail and Sam Lipman, respectively, The scope of material on the fifteen-track release thus reaches far beyond Christmas classics into other realms, the result a true album for the seasonal holiday. Key too is how the selections came to be. Rather than Miró Quartet choosing the material, violinists Daniel Ching and William Fedkenheuer, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele instead asked their composer friends to choose a holiday tune and imaginatively rework it with a new arrangement for string quartet. Many of the pieces do therefore sound familiar, but in being newly adorned they also sound fresh. A scan of the artists involved reveals that some of today's most compelling composers took part, among them Clarice Assad, Kevin Puts, Anna Clyne, Paola Prestini, and Gabriel Kahane. Adding to the warm and personal tone of the project, the release booklet includes commentaries by the composers on the works they contributed and the reasons why they were selected. Memorable moments are abundant, and much pleasure's derived from hearing long-familiar melodies sparkling anew. The singing ones animating Assad's spirited update of “In Dulci Jubilo” fall into that category, as do those in Karl Mitze's rousing, multi-faceted version of “Deck the Halls,” which sees the traditional Welsh tune (“Nos Galan”) augmented with nods to fiddle and Celtic music. In coupling bowing and pizzicato, Michi Wiancko similarly makes “Jingle Bells” feel reborn and amplifies its enduring charm. Many a composer honours the original by retaining its tone, the tender and dignified rendition of “The First Noël” by Puts a case in point and Alex Berko's tremulous treatment of “In the Bleak Midwinter,” its music created by Gustav Holst to Christina Rossetti's poem, another. Jeff Scott likewise aspired to express the quiet dignity, gentle sorrow, and stillness of the traditional Irish carol “Wexford Carol (Carúl Loch Garman)” in his own string quartet arrangement and succeeded with a deeply affecting interpretation. No piece is more heartfelt and true to the original's spirit than Joel Love's “Silent Night.” In one of the album's most striking adaptations, Esmail's update of “I Wonder as I Wander” merges Appalachian folk melodies with Hindustani ornamentation. Like Esmail's, Derrick Skye's “We Three” is a “transcultural reimagining” (his words) of “We Three Kings” in its inventive wedding of Assyrian melodic ornamentation and West African rhythm gestures. Inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected places, in the case of Michael Begay's version of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” from Twisted Sister's intertwining of the eighteenth century classic with the band's own “We're Not Gonna Take It” (the heavy chords with which it ends a presumed nod to the one-hit-wonders). Two contributions give the appearance of being wholly original works, but they're not. Clyne's “Mother's Lullaby” uses the English Christmas carol “Coventry Carol” as a springboard for her haunting, austere, and somewhat Pärt-like update, and Hyung-ki Joo's “Songs of Christmas Past” weaves more than twenty familiar tunes into an eight-minute-long, vocals-punctuated tapestry (among them, “Deck the Halls,” “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and even a few from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker sneaking their way in). Anyone who's experienced the holiday season knows there's joy but melancholy too, and the set-list for Hearth reflects that. Some of the material might be easier for players of Miró Quartet's calibre to execute than a piece by, say, Boulez or Berio, but the group brings the same precision, conviction, and humanity to Hearth as anything else it's recorded. As we've come to expect from this ensemble, the pieces, many of them bite-sized miniatures, are impeccably rendered. 2025 already feels long behind us and, sadly, so too does the holiday season, but this sixty-eight-minute collection is commendable for both its musical content and the feelings of hope, gratitude, and connection it reawakens. February 2026