Reich in Los Angeles
I’ve been listening a lot to Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Well, that’s not exactly a new thing since it was the soundtrack to my life a couple years back. I’ve probably spent more time listening to it than any other single piece of music. And like any great piece of music, it returns into your life and you rediscover it and fall in love again.
I guess all this is just foreplay for the Sunday west coast premiere of Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations. Though Reich turned 70 last year, he’ll still be 70 until October so that’s why it’s being billed as a birthday concert. But those of us who love Reich know that the real birthday celebration was last October in New York. The city he lives in gave back a month full of concerts of his greatest works…and all of us in Los Angeles just sat mystified why our city had forgotten to say anything.
I thought maybe LA would grow on Reich since the world premiere of his You Are Variations was held here over two years ago (an unforgettable experience for those who were there - edit: which will be repeated on Sunday’s concert). And so maybe it has with the new piece premiering in LA rather than San Francisco. However with so much of Reich’s repetoire that I haven’t seen live, it would be nice to get more retrospective concerts rather than new works (both of course are ideal).
Luckily one such retrospective concert was recorded at the Whitney Museum in New York. It was a fitting tribute to a composer who early in his career had to play in such venues, not only because the art crowd dug it but also because the concert halls were not ready.
Now that they are, I say let’s hear it.
