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4.0 out of 5 stars
Reich for those who don't necessarily like Reich, Nov 25 2003
This disc contains one new work by Steve Reich, one old work and two arrangements of old works. Accordingly, it is not going to be stunningly attractive to old hands, but in my opinion it could win new converts to the composer.Triple Quartet is the new work. Written for the Kronos Quartet and in this recording performed by them using overdubbing, this work contains an unusual level of dissonant harmony and of lyrical melody. The composer explains this by observing that he was introduced to the string quartets of Alfred Schnittke just as he began work on the music, and certainly it sounds to me as if the Mesto from Schnittke's second quartet is being constantly refracted and re-examined in the three movements of this work. This is a strong work, though not quite of the calibre of Reich's previous Kronos piece, the outstanding Different Trains. Electric Guitar Phase goes back to one of Reich's seminal classics, Violin Phase, written in 1967 when minimalism was pure and uncluttered. The current recording is of an arrangement of that work for four multi-tracking guitars. I don't feel it adds anything to the original--one of Reich's most extreme essays but also one of his most important works--nor that it is as effective as Electric Counterpoint. Nonetheless, for a new listener coming to Reich for the first time, it might be more palatable than the violin version. More accessible is the 1977 piece Music for Large Ensemble, which has always sounded to me like a pendant--a good pendant, though--to Music for Eighteen Musicians from the previous year. The version here is different from the one on the old ECM recording, taking as it does the 1977 original version instead of the 1979 revised version, with Alan Pierson, the conductor on this performance, editing some of the parts. I don't have a strong preference between the two recordings--the present recording has a more generally beautiful sound, but the ECM recording is more tense rhythmically. This disc ends with Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint, an arrangement for MIDI marimbas of the multi-flute Vermont Counterpoint. It's good-humoured, but once again not as sonically interesting as the original piece. This isn't an essential Reich disc (if I had to own only one Reich disc, it would be the Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint recording), but the Triple Quartet may well attract even listeners not particularly partial to the minimalist aesthetic.
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