Gathering around the hearth: inside the Miró Quartet’s new holiday album

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It’s been an extraordinary year for the Miró Quartet, who have marked their 30th anniversary season with major projects including their acclaimed Ginastera quartet cycle. Now, the Austin, Texas-based ensemble turns to something altogether different: Hearth, a holiday album that looks at the music of winter holidays as remembered, reimagined and celebrated across cultures. It includes fresh arrangements of beloved carols and festive songs by fifteen leading composers, from Anna Clyne and Kevin Puts to Gabriel Kahane and Reena Esmail. The result is a musical celebration as diverse as the holidays themselves.

US correspondent Thomas May spoke with the ensemble’s violist, John Largess, about how Hearth took shape, the surprises that came from working with  composers drawing on their own traditions and how the quartet approached nostalgia, sequencing and togetherness in a project that celebrates the many ways people mark the holidays.

What sparked the idea for Hearth – and what made this holiday season the right time for it?

John Largess: Believe it or not, we in the Miró Quartet have been discussing doing a holiday album for quite a long time. Honestly, it’s something our families and parents have been asking us to do for decades!

But more than that, all of us have a deep connection to the emotions of this time of year – and especially to the music of this magical season. We all have special memories, whether as children, teenagers, adults, or now, as parents with our own kids, of joyful holidays past and present that are inextricably tied to music and its festive message. It just seemed a natural fit for the quartet to want to express that annual joy on our next album.

If we could have done this sooner, we would have! However, the idea of having a substantial group of composers, each writing their own reflection on the holiday tune that meant something important to them, was a big project and took a lot of legwork, conversations and logistics to make happen. I don’t think we’ve ever had a complete album with this many world premieres on it before!

Luckily, we were finally able to get all the pieces of this project together and into the studio in time to release it for the Miró Quartet’s 30th anniversary and the 2025 holiday season.

But beyond the logistics, it seems like the world these days more than ever needs something to remind us all of what is most important in our lives: human connection, love, family traditions, celebrating our individuality and our heritage, and – regardless of differences – coming together in a spirit of hope and peace. I hope this holiday album can do a little bit of that for our listeners as they discover each composer’s holiday world.

You invited composers to choose pieces tied to their own traditions. There’s such a range here – from Hanukkah and West African rhythms to old English carols. How did you decide on the running order, and were there any surprises in what people chose or how they approached the music?

John Largess: It was actually quite fun to decide the running order. Mostly we tried to create as much contrast track to track as possible – whether that’s fast/slow, traditional/modern, folk/classical, or serious/funny. There were so many faces of the holiday experience to explore in all of these tracks! Certainly there’s no one right order to listen to them in, but I do feel we put together a very persuasive sequence.

As for our expectations, honestly, about half the composers – most of whom we already know very well – shared music that was very much in their expected style and expressed themselves as we know them musically and personally. But the other 50 per cent totally surprised us. In fact, I think some of them even surprised themselves!

For example, Gabriel Kahane, who is Jewish, didn’t choose a Hanukkah tune; on the contrary, his holiday memory was of singing Christian Christmas carols with friends during the season, and he chose a Renaissance carol that he completely reinvented into a modern string quartet movement in his experimental contemporary style. A 100% expression of Gabe and his holiday memories and personality – but 100 per cent marvellously unpredictable and unexpected.

Holiday music can slip easily into nostalgia. How did you strike a balance between warmth and freshness?

John Largess: In my opinion, a certain amount of nostalgia during the holidays is a good thing! After all, that’s what connects this holiday with every other holiday season going back through countless generations. It’s that continuity that makes the season so magical and timeless, even as we evolve as a society and our celebrations evolve.

It was fairly easy to strike a good balance of tone once we had chosen the right mix of composers. Each of them is different and unique as a person, in their background and in their memories and values. Encouraging each of them to truly express themselves has given every track a level of authenticity that means so much more than just a collection of fun arrangements of familiar tunes.

I think you’ll find each composer’s creative voice uniquely expressed in wonderful and sometimes elaborate ways within the context of ’holiday music’.

You write that the album is about ’the many ways we celebrate and share the holidays together’. What does that sense of togetherness mean to the Miró personally after thirty years of collaboration?

John Largess: The Miró Quartet really is a family. We’ve been through so many experiences together, not only as colleagues but as friends. There have been triumphs, there have been failures, there have been struggles, there have been fights – just as in any family.

The holidays are a time for us as a quartet family to take a break from touring, relax together, congratulate ourselves on another year together, and look back with gratitude on what we’ve accomplished. During our 30th anniversary, especially, it’s wonderful to have the chance to release an album that encourages all of us to look back and give thanks for everything and everyone we have in our lives.

If you could each add one more track – any holiday song, any arranger – what would it be, and why?

John Largess: I’m sure each of the four of us would have a totally different answer to this question!

If I could have picked a holiday tune, it would have been Silver Bells – one of my mother’s favourite carols to sing when I was a kid playing the piano at our holiday parties. And if I were arranging it myself, I’d do it as if it were a track on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album (which also brings back wonderful teenage nostalgia for me). I’d love to get the funky rhythms and attitude translated into a string quartet movement. I think that combo would make for a new holiday hit!

Hearth is available on the PENTATONE label here.