Steve Reich's latest Nonesuch release, Daniel Variations, will be in stores tomorrow, and the Metro (UK) gives the album five stars, calling it "remarkable." MusicOMH gives the album four stars, calling the title piece "the most vital of Reich's recent works," suggesting it marks "a new stylistic phase" for the composer.
Steve Reich's latest Nonesuch release, Daniel Variations, will be in stores tomorrow, and the Metro (UK) gives the album five stars, calling it "remarkable."
MusicOMH, also out of the UK, gives the album four stars, with reviewer Ben Hogwood calling the title piece "the most vital of Reich's recent works," suggesting it marks "a new stylistic phase" for the composer. The work's variations, writes Hogwood "contain music of an emotional power and anguish rarely glimpsed in the composer's output." And on the performance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, captured on this album, "the words carry a latent power matched by the music." Read the complete review at musicomh.com.
You can listen to the second movement from Daniel Variations, "My name is Daniel Pearl (I'm a Jewish American from Encino, California" and the first movement of Variations for Vibes and Strings, also on the album, at nonesuch.com/stevereich. You can also watch an interview the composer gave to BBC News for the world premiere of Daniel Variations at the Barbican in London in 2006.
