Listening to this piece by Steve Reich:
http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/lundi-contemporaine/emission.php?e_id=80000067&d_id=440000770&arch=1
(I think it is the first French performance for string quartet and recorded sounds)
It seems to me like the classic reheated leftovers of Reich's old ideas; I wouldn't want to commit heresy, but it seemed ugly and useless to me.
On the WEB I found this article... perhaps you have already read it:
http://spettacoli.tiscali.it/articoli/musica/11/11/10/steve-reich-wtc-911.html
"Wtc 9/11": Steve Reich's requiem for the Twin Towers and a world in pieces
by Cristiano Sanna
Wtc as World Trade Center, but also as World To Come, the world that will come, the one being shaped after the fall of the Twin Towers. Wtc 9/11 is the title of Steve Reich's most recent work, his requiem for the victims of the attack on the symbol of capitalist America, with its corollary of dreams and nightmares. The piece is performed by the Kronos Quartet; the strings interact with sampled voices treated electronically, extracted from fragments of conversations (passersby under the hit towers, air traffic controllers, television journalists, rescuers in action amidst smoke and rubble, even the musician's own neighbors). These voices guide the sonic texture and "force" the string instruments into mandatory unison. A formula already used by Reich and the Kronos Quartet in Different Trains, the 1988 album which, according to detractors, is far superior to Wtc 9/11.
Too limited in duration - The main criticism leveled at this new work by the American master of minimalism is that the just over 15 minutes are not enough to adequately develop the sonic material in all its potential. The author plays devil's advocate with a hat perpetually on his head, namely Mr. Reich: what if this very brevity were the strength of the requiem for processed tape and strings? The opening, the first part of Wtc 9/11, with the mayday signals, the screams, the agitation of the rhythmic compulsions, already conveys the weight of the tragedy and the unease for what would come after. The world is in a rush; saying things without useless delays becomes a priority, Reich seems to suggest, and indeed the driving rhythm of the compositions only relaxes in the finale, with Hebrew prayers rising through the smoke and cries of pain, before the pulse of the rhythm returns to remind us that terror and anguish will follow us very closely for a long time to come.
No novelty - The power of reflection and evocation in Wtc 9/11 is precisely due to its brevity. But certainly, it will dissatisfy all those who were expecting a more spectacular development. What is instead totally lacking in this discographic return of the author of Drumming and Piano Phase is novelty. The second part of the album, divided between Mallet Quartet and Dance Patterns, written years ago for the ensemble So Percussion and for choreographers Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Thierry de Mey, does nothing but repeat stylistic elements and compositional patterns inaugurated over thirty years ago by the American master. A small note at the end: the first cover of Wtc 9/11, which depicted the second plane heading towards the towers—a sepia-toned shot by Masatomo Kuriya—provoked a hornet's nest of controversy within the academic community. It was judged "the ugliest cover ever used for a classical music record," until Reich had the photo changed. What were they expecting: the maestro at the piano, glossy and groomed in the Deutsche Grammophon style? See also: the usual stuffy academics.
November 10, 2011
..... what do you say?
