Six Pianos (1973). Steve Reich

Via Bruce Umbaugh, episode 2463 of WNYC's New Sounds has Steve Reich's You Are (Variations), Six Pianos, and an excerpt from Cello Counterpoint. I just tuned in and it's Six Pianos which means I missed You Are (Variations). John Schaefer goes on to suggest Cello Counterpoint may be the most difficult to play of Reich's Counterpoint series. Hard to tell from the minute or so actually streamed.

The Rambler relates how minimalism in general is best live (and how his mum couldn't drive and listen to Six Pianos):

In this respect Six Pianos shares something with the work of Brian Ferneyhough - an awareness of the potency of live performance.

I can't really comment since, despite hearing and owning pretty much all of Reich's work, I've never seen any of it performed live. I've tried to remedy this situation several times but to no avail (yet). Maybe next year at the Minimalist Jukebox series by the LA Philharmonic at Disney Hall, curated by John Adams (and as advertised in the Doctor Atomic program). Unfortunately, the Reich-only concert has Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards, Three Movements, and Tehillim -- nothing for me there. Better, a couple of days later, Gloria Cheng et al play Four Organs, Cage's In a Landscape, and music by Riley, (Colin) McPhee, Pärt, Glass, (David) Lang, and Andreesen. The last night is Adams conducting selections from Glass' Akhnaten and also his own Harmonielehre. Those concerts coupled with a trip to the world's best Amoeba Records and maybe the marionnette theatre again. Hmm...

Update: MP3 stream of yesterday's New Sounds program on the "confluence" of Steve Reich releases here. Schaefer suggests You Are (Variations) "is already being received as one of Steve Reich's masterpieces in a career..."

rgable: aworks consciousness revolution era reich: aworks del.icio.us i love music pick only ten wikipedia google news yahoo audio singingfish the steve reich killed in afghanistan six pianos: wikipedia la scena musicale tehillim: the standing room current listening: eric owazen sinfonia for strings

Comments

[Kirk McElhearn]

I was fortunate to have seen Reich perform many times. Back in the early 80s in New York, I saw his ensemble at the Bottom Line (cabaret/club, from right next to the stage; they did the Octet material), the Guggenheim museum (in the downstairs auditorium, where they performed a bunch of the early material, such as Clapping Music), and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (for the retrospective series in, I think, 1982, where, overe several nights, they performed pretty much everything). I later saw Tehillim performed in Paris.

Yes, minimalism such as Reich does benefit from live performances. Watching Drumming from the balcony of the BAM showed how much it was about movement (of the performers) as well as the music itself. Hearing Octet and other works from really close gave me a different perspective on what the musicians _do_ when performing such works.