The opening of The Shed in Hudson Yards, New York, was just about the biggest news in the arts world in 2019. The eye-catching opening events made great play of combining art forms and one of the highlights was Reich/Richter, a work embracing art, film and music, which had over 100 performances.
An encounter between composer Steve Reich and German visual artist Gerhard Richter a decade earlier had started discussion on a joint project. Richter showed Reich his book Patterns, in which an abstract painting is scanned, cut in half, and half again repeatedly. Out of this Richter was creating a film and Reich’s music was to follow a mirroring musical process.
The result is Reich/Richter, the 40-minute work premiered at The Shed, which stands alone on this disc. There are no visuals here, but the music was always intended to be performed either with the film in concert or on its own.
It opens with an oscillating motion, waves of sound with pianos and vibraphones adding a seductive sheen. This is like the Reich of earlier years, second cousin to the Music for 18 Musicians, though the push and pull of harmony plays a greater role now alongside rhythm and texture.
As the film’s images subdivide, so the music slows into a spacious central section, surveying a distant horizon, before moving back to a finale of intense, rapid movement. This recording by the Ensemble Intercontemporain led by George Jackson is vivid and tonally rich.
★★★★☆
‘Reich/Richter’ is released by Nonesuch
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