Recent Reich

[diegobueno]

I've been listening to this excellent Quartet for 2 vibraphones and 2 pianos by Steve Reich. The group featured here, Ensemble Signal, performed a whole evening of recent Steve Reich compositions last month (Oct. 18) at the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress, but it was this quartet that really grabbed my admiration. Actually I really like all of his recent music; he's just getting better as he gets older.

Also on the program was
Runner (2016) -- for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, vibes, pianos, violins, violas, cellos, and one double bass.
Pulse (2015) -- for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 4 violins, 2 violas, electric bass and piano.
Double Sextet (2007) -- for flute, clarinet, vibes, piano, violin and cello x 2. In other words, it was designed to be played by an ensemble in synch with a recording of itself. In this performance all the musicians were live.

The by now 80-year-old Reich was on hand, in his ever-present baseball cap, to play one of the parts in his early Clapping Music.

In the performance of the Quartet that I saw, they did not suffer the malfunction of a vibraphone that occurs at about the 8:00 mark in this video.