Kronos Quartet - Reich: Triple Quartet, Music for a Large Ensemble, Electric Guitar Phase

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Free Music Notes for Reich: Triple Quartet, Music for a Large Ensemble, Electric Guitar Phase

Free Music Review: Startling insight into an amazing composer
Hit: 5 Stars

Instead of going in order of the tracks on the disc, let me go in order of the date of composition of each piece.

Electric Guitar Phase, though new in this orchestration, is of course 1967's Violin Phase reborn...This might be Reich's most static piece for tradional instruments (that is, besides early pieces for tape or "pendulum music")...For me, the original version of this piece never quite worked - the articulations possible on violin kept it from really "locking in"...This version has solved that problem completely...

The sharp attack on each note or dyad when done on electric guitars makes every new pattern clearer than any violinist could hope for...it's truly a revelation to hear this piece work so well. I always thought "piano phase" to be the best of Reich's phase pieces...I was wrong. This new recording should make listeners really sit up and take note - classical music ain't what it used to be, and thank G-d...one of our greatest composer's best pieces turns out to be for a bunch of electric guitars!

The next work (chronologically) is "Large Ensemble"...compared to the old ECM recording, I'm not convinced that this ensemble is playing as tightly as this piece needs them to...but at the same time, the sound quality is of course much better and warmer than the old recording. This one you can judge for yourself. I haven't totally made up my mind one way or another on this one...

Tokyo Counterpoint deserves some praise - I think that Reich is right when, in the liner notes, he points out that this transcription has a "sense of humor"...the playing is very tight. I am inclined to say that I like this version better than the original for flutes...in most ways I do, but the warmth of the flutes is missed. Either way, this is a very fine rendering.

The Kronos piece, although the most "high profile" of the works on here, I will not say much about it - others on here already have and echo many of my sentiments. It is a great piece, as you've surely heard is much indebted to Bartok, and is quite a departure for Reich...We know Kronos plays it great, we know the sound quality is great, and the piece works well in one long stroke from beginning to end, the three movements flowing into each other seamlessly.

One of the best Reich recordings out there.

Reich: Triple Quartet, Music for a Large Ensemble, Electric Guitar Phase Poster

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