Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

Steve Reich (Composer), Steve Reich Ensemble (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Steve Reich Ensemble
• Composer: Steve Reich
• Audio CD (April 18, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecm Records
• Run Time: 57 minutes
• ASIN: B000026258
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,341 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This has to be Steve Reich's most difficult work to perform; but he's done it. Several times. Music for 18 Musicians is for violin, cello, two clarinets doubling bass clarinet, four women's voices, four pianos, three marimbas, two xylophones, and a metallophone (vibraphone with no motor). It's a 1974 composition that focuses entirely on the rich staccato that gives minimalism its unique sound. However, Reich turns all of this into actual music by adding the richness of the metallophone and the women's voices. Whatever else people may have said about minimalism, pro or con, a work such as Music for 18 Musicians demonstrates its legitimacy. --Paul Cook

Product Description

CD

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most "Live" Of The Three Recordings Of 18 December 11, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

I own all three recordings of Music For 18 Musicians; I suggest that for anyone who is truly interested in the work, owning all three is a must.

In order of preference for me, the recordings go ECM, RCA, and Nonesuch.

No recording of 18 quite captures the piece as it sounds live. (I've had the luck to see it twice with Steve Reich & Musicians at the San Francisco Symphony.) However, the ECM version comes close to duplicating the timbre of the real thing. To my ears, it sounds the most "live".

The RCA/Ensemble Modern recording is perhaps the best performed. Ensemble Modern emphasizes Reich's earlier philosophies about music as a process; they clearly delineate the various instruments and lines in the recording, and they properly accentuate the lead mallet lines. (I say "proper" because that's what it sounded like when I saw 18 performed live.) What this recording lacks in lush beauty, it gains in near-academic perfection.

The new Nonesuch recording was designed from the ground up to be a recording, not a live performance. Most instruments are close-mic'd, which gives the odd feeling of standing next to all of the instruments at the same time. I love it for its open spaces, surprising tempo, and stunning imaging of the mallet instruments. It is as lush and beautiful as the ECM recording, but I prefer the subtleties and pacing of the ECM more.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Consider other recordings... February 2, 2001

By enolcmelca

Format:Audio CD

Many other reviews comment generally on the beauty of this piece. Here are my concise views and recommendations:

-This recording is sonically precise, but slow and less organic than others available (e.g. the ECM recording). The sense of the overall tapestry of the work is diminished by the close miking one hears throughout. Certain little blips or phrases are artificially highlighted for too long. Too bad, because re-recordings of other works (such as Music for Mallets, Voices, and Organ) also seem to ephasize individual instruments above an overall wash from the ensemble without picking up on little bits of phrases from one instrument too much.

Recommendations: --For a first listen, the ECM recording is essential. It preserves the sense of this piece occurring in a performance space. Having heard the piece live twice, the role of reverb and the concert hall is considerable. Only the ECM recording comes close to hearing this piece live.

--If you want a dead-on reading, with maximum clarity of each line, I recommend the Ensemble Modern recording. Their performance is closer to what seems the natural tempo. Their mixing establishes the interplay between the parts very clearly without "artifically" highlighting certain parts too much, as seems to happen in Reich's second recording.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Minimalist Milestone June 13, 2002

By Christopher Forbes

Format:Audio CD

This CD can either send you into a deep trance or a screaming fit, depending on your tolerance for repetative minimalist music. Music for 18 Musicians is Reich's great transition work from the small ensemble pieces of the 70's to his large scale work of the 80's and 90's. It's densely layered repeating patterns gradually shift in and out of phase with each other, creating a kalideoscope of timbres, and endlessly varied crossrhythms. To listen to this piece with an open mind is to enter an entrancing world of color light and imagination. Reich proves why he is the most imitated and inimitable of all of the minimalists.

The performance is definitive. These musicians were all members of Reich's performing groups of the 70's. And ECM engineers have a genius for atmospheric sound that is perfect for this music. This is a delightful CD.