A slew of pieces threw up some hits and misses, yet all served to remind us of the challenging and daring oeuvre that the experimental composer still masters
Steve Reich’s late period has been one of the great ongoing delights of New York’s contemporary music scene. The onetime hardcore minimalist has been on a steady hot streak, ever since his Pulitzer-winning 2007 piece Double Sextet. While that piece built on some of the instrumental doubling familiar from his past works, it also announced a new focus on melodic lyricism. And though some may have suspected Reich of pandering when he first announced Radio Rewrite – a five-movement work inspired by Radiohead themes – that one turned out to be even more melodically imaginative.
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