En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | WTC 9/11

Five hours of repetitive music on a Sunday evening may be a hellish way for some to end the week; fortunately, I belong in the second category. A concert series named “Steve Reich Unlimited” therefore required no further selling points.

“I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music”, Steve Reich wrote in his 1968 essay Music as a Gradual Process. His music of the 1960s, from tape pieces such as It’s Gonna Rain to instrumental works like Piano Phase, employed phasing and looping techniques. These compositions are some of the first examples of both process music and downtown musical minimalism.

The program page for Kronos Quartet’s program at the Cleveland Museum of Art on 18 January was typical of their concerts: a daunting list of mostly unfamiliar composers and every work either written or arranged for Kronos (David Harrington and John Sherba, violins; Hank Dutt, viola; and Jeffrey Zeigler, cello).

A successful performance of Steve Reich’s music requires performers with stamina, a groove, and an audience willing to come along for the ride. The music itself is at its best when Reich layers gesture on top of gesture, creating a complex rhythmic tapestry that can put listeners into a trance and trigger unexpected emotions.