Via del.icio.us/thestandingroom, Anne Midgette profiles Steve Reich, mostly about his new work You Are (Variations) but also quotes Reich again on why he gave up composing for orchestra:
"Why write with one arm tied behind your back?" he said. "John Adams is taking care of the orchestral scene beautifully. I don't need all those strings. It's always the same thing, you slow the tempo down to accommodate the larger forces, and you get a nicer, richer sound. But you don't get that kind of probing intensity that you get from the quartet. Look, you have to write music that you're supposed to write, orchestrate it the best way you possibly can and, if it's an ensemble that's not one of the established ensembles, take your lumps."
I like to hear composers compliment their contemporaries.
The Standing Room has previously described why The Four Sections is not Reich's best work. Clearly, the composer agrees, as do I. Amazon samples Reich's Four Sections, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
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