REVIEW: Holiday Music You Can Love: Miró Quartet's 'Hearth'

November 30, 2025, 4:00 PM · You HAVE to hear this holiday album.

This is something I've seldom said about any holiday album, but the Miró Quartet's new album Hearth is the most worthy exploration of this genre that I have come across - maybe ever. Certainly for string quartet.

The Miró Quartet: L-R: Daniel Ching, Joshua Gindele, John Largess and William Fedkenheuer. Photo by Barry Carlton.

Yes, it is full of ubiquitous tunes such as Jingle Bells, The First Noel, Deck the Halls... But it's all about the arrangements: "For this album we asked each of our composer friends to set any holiday tune that they wanted in any way they chose that would work for string quartet, and share a personal memory with us through the music," writes Miró Quartet violist John Largess in the album's booklet.

The thing is, their "composer friends" constitute a dream team of today's finest composers: Anna Clyne, Clarice Assad, Gabriel Kahane, Reena Esmail, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Michi Wiancko, Karl Mitze, Sam Lipman, Alex Berko, Anna Clyne, Jeff Scott, Michael Begay, Derrick Skye, Joel Love and Hyung-ki Joo.

That is a heckuva list. (I imagine asking 12 artist friends - say, Picasso, Monet, Chagall, etc. - to each pick a month and paint pictures for a wall calendar - certainly that would be a calendar for the ages...)

The result is an album of holiday music from the pens of highly intelligent and imaginative musicians. They have created arrangements that reflect the familiar while flavoring it with an enticing world of rhythms, harmonies and textures - and also showcasing considerable talents of this veteran string quartet. (Together for 30 years, the Austin, Texas-based Miró Quartet has earned many honors, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant and nominations for several Grammys.)

Oftentimes, when popular or familiar melodies are arranged for string quartet, the result is appealing but bland. In this case, these composers bring their own individuality and backgrounds to the mix: Karl Mitze's "Deck the Halls" is rhythmically adventurous and fiddle-tinged. Reena Esmail's "I Wonder as I Wander" is lilting and full of improvised-sounding violin figures, enhanced with Hindustani ornamentation. Sam Lipman's "Ma’oz Tzur" (Rock of Ages) is haunting, with glassy-smooth string textures and the occasional eyebrow-raising chord.

BELOW: "Deck the Halls," arranged by Karl Mitze.

Kevin Puts' "The First Noël" is heart-on-the-sleeve string-playing. Anna Clyne's "Coventry Carol" (retitled "Mother's Lullaby") is given a largely non-vibrato, Renaissance-like treatment. Derrick Skye's "We Three Kings" includes inventive quartet textures, with Assyrian melodic ornamentation and West African rhythmic layering. I could go on and on about every single arrangement on this album.

It ends with "Songs of Christmas Past," a hilarious romp through several dozen holiday-related tunes, arranged by Hyung-ki Joo (the "Joo" in the musical comedy team of Igudesman and Joo. He knits together everything from the Halleluiah Chorus to "Joy to the World" and "Deck the Halls" to the Nutcracker and "Silent Night" and back again, often mashing several together. The crazy protracted ending is clearly a Tchaikovsky joke. It's brilliant, and you can "get" the musical jokes on a lot of different levels.

While I may be Grinch-ishly inclined to wear earplugs to avoid most holiday music this time of year - I actually listened to this album all the way through for more than a straight hour, and it truly has added to my holiday cheer. If you are interested in procuring this album, click here for all the options.

Enjoy the season!

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REVIEW: Holiday Music You Can Love: Miró Quartet's 'Hearth'

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