Customer Reviews

Steve Reich: The Desert Music - Michael Tilson Thomas

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The Desert Music is beautiful music, tho not especially "minimal" (is any of it?) & less entrancing than Reich's earlier chamber works. The texts from William Carlos Williams are thoughtfully chosen & reflective of Reich's strong social concerns. The problem is that I happen to believe composers should be guided by a poet's voice. There isn't much guesswork with Williams' intended delivery because he recorded many of his poems. Williams was a very economical poet, so to chop up, reassemble & repeat lines of his poems is hardly collaborating with them ... or him.

A fine example of a contemporary composer really hearing a poet can be found in Steve Swallow's settings of poems by Robert Creeley on the album "Home."

The Desert Music is worthwhile, but probably not the port of entry for Steve Reich's music. For that I could recommend Music for 18 Musicians; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voice & Organ; or Different Trains.

Bob Rixon

Steve Reich came to fame writing chamber music for his own ensemble, and with reason -- this is where he does his best work. For those new to his music, I can't lavish enough praise on his unique, brilliant works for smaller ensembles: Music for 18 Musicians; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ; Tehillim. And there are good recordings of all of these.

The Desert Music is Reich's first effort to really compose for symphony orchestra, and he seems to be trying to step into other composers' shoes, to write a great symphonic work in the tradition of so many choral-orchestral masterpieces. But really, this isn't where Reich's gifts are. His athletic counterpoint comes out sounding bloated, awkward, heavy, and -- to my taste -- a little slow. Nowhere on this recording does one hear the lightness of touch that this music requires. Reich's own ensemble approaches even his most rhythmically complex scores with grace, ease, and a sort of pop-music stylishness. Probably, it's not possible to do that with the mammoth 108 player Desert Music orchestra.

There might well be a good piece in The Desert Music -- certainly there's some gorgeous writing. But I don't think it'd being heard here. Michael Tilson Thomas and the Brooklyn Phil do excellent work, but I suggest waiting for the anticipated release of Reich's chamber version of The Desert Music, which is supposed to be coming out soon. I've heard this version performed live, and it's much more successful than the original orchestration. And if you're anxious to get a piece of Reich in your home, he's got a whole lot of great chamber music out there on record already.

The orchestral recording of The Desert Music gives you Reich's society colored in these wonderful huge dense sounds, which to most of his listeners is almost alien to their experience with his music, although most fulfilling in so many changing ways. The density of the music is an interleving bundle of soundfibers, a civilization that lives and breathes.

If you like this piece you should also check out "Olson III" by Terry Riley - the city of this piece is a wild ride into the very fabric that we live in everyday. Democracy, or so they say.

This piece holds the distinction of being the only Reich composition I've seen performed live, at UCLA in the spring of 1985; and this recording was the first CD I ever purchased. Over time, though, I've come to realize that this is one of my least favorite Reich pieces. In fact, if I liked it any less, it would be among the ones I never listen to.

Only the first movement is really worth hearing. It is spirited and has some catchy driving rhythms. The piece never fully regains this energy, though it picks up some in the last movement. It is really brought down by the interminably slow third movement, which reaches its nadir in some horrendously drunken-sounding siren effects. Overall, the work is characterized by chords that to me are ugly and have none of the tremendous emotional impact that I get from my favorite Reich pieces.

Almost everyone recommends starting with "Music for 18 Musicians," but if you already have that, I would recommend any work from the period 1978-86 that isn't this one.

Steve Reich: The Desert Music is good stuff but don't listen to it alone late at night in the dark, it reminds me of the Exorcist or the Omen. There's a choral of people that is truly haunting. Could have be used in a 70's satan movie.

To enjoy this CD you must embrace the Zen-like subtle changes of Reich's music. Who says true minimalism can't be written for a large orchestra? My greatest memory of this was watching Metropolis with this as the soundtrack. Oh yes, and Sid was there.