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Steve Reich 1965-1995


Steve Reich 1965-1995


Best Price: $99.98

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording

In the afterglow of his 60th birthday in 1997, Nonesuch Records delivered Steve Reich and his listeners an immense gift, this 10-CD retrospective of his work for the label, extending from his earliest tape-manipulation pieces to his most recent compositions utilizing samplers and the video artistry of Beryl Korot. Aside from the ear's liquid sense-making when it hears the dense and limber marimbas of Reich's Six Marimbas or his taut, dizzying Piano Phase, there is a physical response almost inevitable in Reich's music. It stuns and holds you. And he knows it. It's Gonna Rain struck an early chord of inventiveness, featuring an African American Pentecostal preacher's sermon and eventually spinning the title phrase into a jangling repetition of single words. Percussion works abound here: Clapping and Drumming stun with their deceptive similarity and warm clarity. Perennial favorite Piano Phase features pianists Nurit Tilles and Eduard Neumann synched up on two pianos and careening at full tilt in unison before their four hands fall out of time and phrase with each other, only to realign in a powerful swooping demonstration of energy and focus. The latter CDs hold abundant delights, many revealing Reich's late-discovered spiritualism and Judaica: Different Trains' examination of the Holocaust; Tehillim's shimmering Hebrew texts sung with fascinating choral power; Proverb's invocation of Perotin. Closing the set are recent pieces: Nagoya Marimbas, and the sampler-rich City Life and The Cave. --Andrew Bartlett

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Customer Reviews
Dwarfclimb Said: Set box torn out ( Nov. 18th 2009 )
The package was not sturdy enough , so the set box is torn out ( CD are OK )
mianfei Said: Performances (and music) lack passion and beauty ( Dec. 13th 2007 )
Steve Reich, unlike most classical composers, is well-known in the popular music world owing to his influence on many musicians of the "post rock" period. After having heard and been impressed by his Six Pianos and Four Organs, I was eager to hear a full collection of his material since he began composing in the 1960s. However, there is really little of note in the ten discs of "Steve Reich 1965-1995". Even the two pieces whose first two performances I initially liked are not performed as well here - and with hindsight they are nothing compared to, say, Messiaen's organ works in terms of emotion and depth. The rest of the work here is no better, for instance the acclamied "Music for 18 Musicians" certainly lacks the passion of the post-rock it is often claimed to have been a major influence on. It also is very boring because the many instruments are unable to show the subtle variations of texture that are often possible with a single instrument, especially one liek an organ. Some of Reich's works, even if prelude to the sampling era, are just annoying noise created by tape loops that seem out of place in a work devoted to classical music. His later work, though easier to listen to, approaches blandness and the orchestras seem to be playing something that has been played before. It's really good to be able to notice the mediocre music in the classical, as well as the popular field, and this is amongst them. you will not gain much by hearing this lengthy set. There is much better music amongst modern classical composers.
Jonny B Said: Classic, but not the definitive... ( May. 19th 2004 )
While a multi CD collection spanning 30 years does sound very promsing, Nonesuch cannot offer all of the best recordings of some of Reich's masterpieces (Music for 18 Musicians or Drumming), and some have been missed out completely (Music for a Large Ensemble), presumably because the piece was not recorded under the Nonesuch label. While the collection is formidable, a listener wanting to hear the best recordings of all the pieces might do better seeking out the older (or longer!) recordings of the pieces.

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