Steve Reich's Double Sextet was given its New York premiere last Thursday at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall by eighth blackbird. The New York Times says that the "vigorous" new piece "begins with Mr. Reich's signature chugging rhythms but quickly moves a fair distance, as intricate rhythmic counterpoint and thickening harmonies displace the repetitive opening figure." Following its West Coast premiere last Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times said it creates "the kind of explosion of fractured rhythms that never ceases to amaze the ear."
Double Sextet, a new work by Steve Reich, received its New York premiere last Thursday at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall by the new-music ensemble eighth blackbird, which went to show that the group "is now in another league," according to the New York Times. Reviewer Allan Kozinn says that the "vigorous" new piece "begins with Mr. Reich's signature chugging rhythms but quickly moves a fair distance, as intricate rhythmic counterpoint and thickening harmonies displace the repetitive opening figure."
Following the piece's West Coast premiere last Tuesday, at the Orange County Performing Artscenter, the Los Angeles Times Music Critic Mark Swed wrote that Double Sextet, with its interplay between pre-recorded music and the live performance, creates "the kind of explosion of fractured rhythms that never ceases to amaze the ear." Swed continues:
Musicians, forced to keep count as though their lives depend on it, typically treat Reich's music as a left-brain activity. But the left brain can't hold all that music, and for listeners, all those fractured rhythms spill over onto the right side, where there is room for spatial perception. A really good performance, then, feels like a barely controlled explosion between your ears.
Tuesday's was a really good, rocking, rollicking performance.
For the New York performance review, visit nytimes.com; for Swed's review, visit latimes.com.
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The latest recording from Steve Reich, Daniel Variations, was released on Nonesuch earlier this month. The Financial Times' Andrew Clark calls the album's title piece "a meditative requiem" on the slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and credits the Los Angeles Master Chorale, led by Grant Gershon, with making "splendid sense" of the work. Paired with that piece on the recording is Reich's Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings, from 2005, about which, Clark writes, "Reich fans should be well pleased, especially given a performance, by the London Sinfonietta under [Alan] Pierson, as lively and precise as this." To read the review, visit ft.com.
The Observer's Anthony Holden calls Daniel Variations "haunting" and the Observer Music Monthly's Mike Barnes finds it "restlessly syncopated with woodwind, percussion, vibes and pianos examining each theme from a number of angles. The piece moves from a brooding introduction to a sublime denouement ..." For more, visit music.guardian.co.uk.
In the Independent on Sunday, reviewer Anna Picard also points to the piece's restlessness, finding it "propelled by darting vibes and dancing violins" that proves to be "a powerful,thoughtful, loving piece." She also compliments the London Sinfonietta for its performance of the second piece, which she calls "a work of classically Reichian dazzled ecstasy." For that review, visit independent.co.uk.
