Tana

The practice of everyday life in Tana Toraja (South Sulawesi, Indonesia) is structured by a series of public events, of which funerals are the most important. Even after Indonesia was hit by an economic crisis in the late 1990s, thousands of extravagant funeral ceremonies, requiring huge expenditures, were still organized each year.

The TANA Quartet has joined forces with composer Philip Glass for the premiere of his String Quartet No. 9. This new work is based on his earlier score for the Broadway production of King Lear directed by Sam Gold. This recording also features Glass’s String Quartet No. 8, written in 2018. Almost Schubertian in nature, this quartet is marked by layers of sound and contrasting timbres and rhythms. Glass seems to have entered a third period in his wide-ranging career, characterized by a more classical, introspective approach.