Steve Reich: Tehillim; The Desert Music

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Reich
Anne Midgette wrote in the New York Times: "Mr. Reich['s] classification as a minimalist, grouped with Philip Glass, has come to seem, with the years, increasingly irrelevant. You could say that Mr. Reich stripped music down to its bare essentials in seminal works like 'Clapping Music' (1972), written for two performers and their hands, or 'Drumming' (1971), an hour-plus piece written entirely for percussion instruments. But even those pieces, spare in means, have their own eloquence. … For his 70th birthday Nonesuch has released a new box set … with a selection of Mr. Reich's greatest hits, most of them in the recordings made with the ensemble he founded in 1966. … The performances are very fine. But it's fascinating to listen to recordings made by another group a generation later. Mr. Reich's ensemble focuses on presenting the composition; the younger group, Alarm Will Sound, crack performers all, also focuses on interpreting it. On that band's CD of 'Tehillim' and 'The Desert Music' … Mr. Reich's music takes on a whole new dimension of ravishing beauty, beauty that was in there all along" (9/29/06).