The presence of this album on classical best-seller charts in the fall of 2022 perhaps suggests a pent-up demand for the music of
Steve Reich, whose new releases made headlines less than they used to.
Reich was 86 when the album accomplished that chart feat, but it shows he continued to devise fresh ideas.
Reich's style in the two works here is, compared to the contemporary music of
Philip Glass, closer to that of his classic High Minimalist period, and indeed either one, with its oversized chamber ensemble forces, might take his
Music for 18 Musicians (1978) as a point of departure. What is new here is that
Reich offers a pair of works with the same basic structure,
Runner (2016) and
Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018); the latter receives its world premiere here, and it was his first piece of orchestral music in many years.
Reich and
David Lang banter about this in the interview-style booklet note, but in reality, it is a rather profound idea that none of the other minimalists has hit on. Each work is in an arch shape of the sort
Reich favors, with note value as the organizing principle; both works begin with sixteenth notes, proceed through eighth notes and quarter notes, and then return along the same path. The differences between the works lie mostly in the areas of texture and timbre. One might observe that it is his exploitation of these parameters that has endeared
Reich above all the other minimalists to musicians in the field of electronic dance music and also that the program makes an ideal way of attuning the ear to his music.
Susanna Maelkki, leading the
Los Angeles Philharmonic, isn't especially known as a
Reich conductor, but she produces the steely consistency of tempo necessary to making his music work, and Walt Disney Hall also shows itself as an unexpected plus. ~ James Manheim
