Different Trains

Steve Reich's "Different Trains" is the focal point of this concert. An innovative, Grammy-winning work for string quartet and tape, which together form a kind of acoustic/digital counterpoint. The work deals with Reich's reflections on the years before, during and after the Second World War and the role of trains in the USA and Europe respectively. Voices from interviews with Holocaust survivors and train sounds merge with the musicians' notes and become a single melody. In the first half of the concert Different Trains is paired with two string quartets with their own strong stories. Maddalena Sirmen wrote her string quartets almost at the same time as Haydn's first string quartets, which are often regarded as the first, foundational compositions for this ensemble. Leoš Janáček's music is always fairy-tale-like and imaginative, and this string quartet is no exception. "The Kreutzer Sonata" is inspired by Tolstoy's novella of the same name, whose themes are jealousy, desire and regret. M. L. Sirmen, String Quartet No. 2 in B-flat major L. Janáček, String Quartet No. 1, "The Kreutzer Sonata" Interval S. Reich, Different Trains