Paying Homage Through Celebration

Carnegie Hall spent the past week celebrating minimalist composer Steve Reich's 70th birthday with several days of concerts dedicated to the work of the modern composer. Sunday night, "Making Music: Steve Reich" completed the series at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall with the much anticipated American debut of his "Daniel Variations,"dedicated to fallen journalist Daniel Pearl and co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation.

The emotionally charged work, which made its world premiere in London this past September, paid tribute to Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by Muslim extremists while on assignment in Iraq. Much of Mr. Reich's early work is characterized by simple musical phrases that slide in and out of synch, creating complex patterns of dissonance, which tend to resolve into ecstatic harmony. This piece was more orchestral than Mr. Reich's typical fare. The composition was broken into four parts and included sung lyrics that were articulated in overlapping minor chords by multiple pianos, marimbas, violins, clarinet, and voice, which gave the piece a dark, complex tone.

Melodically, "Daniel Variations" harkened back to Mr. Reich's other work like "The Cave," "Tehillim," and "Desert Music," with its more formal compositional elements. Although ambitious in scope, the piece was not one of my favorites. But as a biographical piece about Daniel Pearl, the score evoked Mr. Reich's sincerity, honesty, and compassion, and this piece may grow in popularity as it becomes more familiar to fans of Mr. Reich's work.

Three other Reich compositions were performed Sunday evening. The performance began with Maya Beiser's interpretation of Mr. Reich's "Cello Counterpoint" (2003). The production involved the lone cellist playing against herself as projected on a video screen above the stage. Ms. Beiser, a skilled and passionate musician, played aggressive counterpoint to the eight other images of herself playing on split screen. The result was an intriguing blend of multitracked video and audio, and live performance.

While riveting, Ms. Beiser's piece ultimately lacked focus, and I found my attention divided between her live image and the video screen playing her multitracked performance above. The audio tracks on the video were also lacking in timbre and tone, which didn't help to flesh out the piece. These however were technical issues for a successful ambitious performance.

David Cossin's innovative interpretation of "Piano Phase" was the second performance of the evening. The original piece was composed by Mr. Reich in 1967, and involves two piano players sitting at opposing grand pianos, playing melodic lines that slowly move forward and backward over each other, creating patterns of harmony and dissonance, chaos and order. In the Sunday evening's work, retitled "Piano/Video Phase," Mr. Cossin positioned himself behind a square video screen. A video of Mr. Cossin playing one part of "Piano Phase" on midi drum pads began playing, then back lighting came on to reveal Mr. Cossin playing live counterpoint behind the screen.

The resulting performance was an exercise in double-vision, in which the audience saw Mr. Cossin playing in synch with an overlay of himself, creating a peculiar image of a four-armed musician. The effect was hypnotic, and vividly illustrated the paradoxical simplicity and complexity of Mr. Reich's original work. The result was stunning and the crowd cheered his inventive performance.

The last piece of the evening was "Drumming" (1970), a classic in Mr. Reich's catalog of works. Many of Mr. Reich's original ensembles, as well as Mr. Reich himself, were on hand to perform the piece, which is an intricate exercise in percussion. An hour long with no breaks, the composition pivots around shifting tonal melodies as they move from multiple tuned bongo drums, to marimbas, and then to glockenspiel. Human voice and piccolo are present to accentuate certain melodic phrases. The piece appears to require great focus and endurance, as the ensemble of players slowly shifts from instrument to instrument. The overall effect is one of ecstatic rhythm and energy.

As Mr. Reich's last and most ambitious "phase" pieces, "Drumming" quickly shifts from languid eddies of light melody to driving percussive passages. In the third movement, Mr. Reich introduces the glockenspiels, which produce high-pitched overtones that ring through the performance space, adding another layer of complexity and beauty. The fourth movement unites the piece, as all the elements are brought together to reiterate the central themes. As a closing piece to Carnegie Hall's Steve Reich @ 70 festival, it was perfect. As "Drumming" came to it's sudden cacophonous and joyful conclusion, there were a few beats of silence before the audience mirrored the piece with its own enthusiastic applause.