Steve Reich: You Are (Variations)

Maya Beiser (Performer), Steve Reich (Composer), Grant Gershon (Conductor), Los Angeles Master Chorale (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Maya Beiser, Los Angeles Master Chorale
• Conductor: Grant Gershon
• Composer: Steve Reich
• Audio CD (September 27, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B000A3OX3M
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #110,606 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This new CD of Steve Reich's music pairs two unusually scored pieces. "You Are (Variations)" is set for three sopranos, an alto and two tenors, with flutes, oboe, English horn, two marimbas, clarinets, four pianos, vibraphone and strings. The texts, in Hebrew and English, are philosophical meditations: "You are whoever your thoughts are," "Say little and do much," etc. The resulting work is fascinating, the textures unique and fresh, the experience haunting and captivating, with the voices used as another significant instrumental part. Equally fine is the second work, "Cello Counterpoint," scored for eight cellos (seven pre-recorded and one played "live" by soloist Maya Baiser), which is noteworthy for its complex rhythms, use of counterpoint, and handsome lyrical solo cello line floating above it all. Reich fans will love this; the uninitiated will want to give it a try. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sublimely beautiful, joyful, challenging stuff, February 2, 2006

By	D. Robert Bundy (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I normally don't submit reviews in this forum, and I generally think that chatter among critics is beside the point, and of little use to anyone looking to reader comments for insights into the relative merits of a piece of music. What is that great quote from Elvis Costello? "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." BUT...

I've listened to this recording several times, and I am so grateful for this music. I've been following Reich for a couple of decades now, and like anyone, I have my favorites, but it is sometimes frustrating to read people sniffing at a new work by deciding that it is not the percieved equal of some earlier work by that composer. I guess because I think of a great composer's latest work as a chapter in a book, and it makes little sense to me to stop the conversation between composer and listener in order to pit one chapter against another. Some of these posted criticisms have been thoughtful and heartfelt, but I would want them to consider that the listener changes over time as well, and sometimes listener and composer evolve and grow in different directions, and it is not necessarily the composer's "fault" if their aesthetics diverge down the line.

I love this record. I think Reich is distilling some of what has made him so interesting to me over the years. There are only a handful of modern composers that create music that is both lovely AND challenging, and none has perfected this balance better than Reich. Others may differ, but for me, the conversation is just getting more interesting as the years go by.

Robert Bundy

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And the Works Just Get Better and Better, October 16, 2005

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Steve Reich is a consistent contemporary composer. He has been artist in residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for years now and his forays into instrumental works, chamber works, and works for the human voice. He has that uncanny ability to treat every participant in lifting his score of the page as equals, whether that participant be a percussionist, and instrumentalist, a soloist, or the human voice. His gift is one of sonics and pulsating rhythmic patterns that, while many may classify as minimalist, unfold like the colored stone patterns in a revolving kaleidoscope.

Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale appear to be perfectly wedded to Reich's gifts. The 'You Are (Variations)' are four movements in alternating English and Hebrew and call more for an 'instrumental' approach to the voice than for the usual opulent choral beauty that is the hallmark of this fine ensemble. And it works! 'You are wherever your thoughts are' opens the work in English followed by 'Shiviti hashem l'negdi (I place the eternal before)', 'Explanations come to an end somewhere', and the final 'Ehmor m'aht, v'ahsay harbay (Say little and do much)'. In these comprehensibly sung texts is great beauty of invention and sound, a perfect melding of the human voice as a musical instrument with just the added edge of being able to utter words that magnify the mood.

Equally as beautiful is 'Cello Counterpoint' (as performed by Maya Beiser and prerecorded eight other celli), a lyrical with a fascinatingly dense rhythmic drive that is for this listener one of the most successive experimental works of his Counterpoint series.

While fellow minimalist composers (John Adams for one) are stretching beyond the purity of this movement, Steve Reich proves that there is much more to be said in this realm. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vibrant..., October 2, 2005

By	Jonny B (London) - See all my reviews

I went to see the UK premiere of this piece, and honestly, it almost sounds better recorded on this CD.