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Different Trains

The Smith Quartet

Different Trains

Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212006429
Catnr: SIGCD 064
Release date: 01 August 2005
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1 CD
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212006429
Catalogue number
SIGCD 064
Release date
01 August 2005
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

The album contains three of Steve Reich's most inspiring works: Triple Quartet for three string quartets, Reich’s personal dedication to the late Yehudi Menuhin, Duet, and the haunting Different Trains for string quartet and electronic tape.

De meest inspirerende werken van Steve Reich
Dit album bevat drie van de meest inspirerende werken van Steve Reich: Triple Quartet voor drie strijkkwartetten, Reichs persoonlijke opdracht aan Yehudi Menuhin, Duet, en het beklijvende Different Trains voor strijkkwartet en tape, uitgevoerd door het Smith Quartet, een vooraanstaand ensemble op het terrein van hedendaagse muziek.

In Different Trains legt Reich de basis voor een nieuwe manier van componeren, met het uitgangspunt dat voor deze muziek spraakopnames ten grondslag liggen aan het muzikale materiaal voor de instrumenten. Het idee voor het werk is afkomstig uit de jeugd van de componist. Van 1939 tot 1942 reisde hij regelmatig per trein heen en weer tussen zijn vader in New York en zijn moeder in Los Angeles. Toen Reich later terugkeek op deze treinreizen dacht hij: als ik tijdens deze periode in Europa had geleefd, dan had ik als Jood in heel andere treinen moeten zitten. In zijn werk denkt Reich op nauwkeurige wijze na over deze situatie. Uit opnames van treinreizigers, overlevenden van de Holocaust en treingeluiden selecteerde hij korte fragmenten met een enigszins duidelijke toonhoogte, die hij zo nauwkeurig mogelijk noteerde. Aan de strijkers tijdens de uitvoering de taak om deze spraakmelodieën letterlijk te imiteren, die worden aangevuld met de geluidsfragmenten en drie losse strijkkwartetten op een vooraf opgenomen tape.

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Steve Reich

Steve Reich was recently called  'our greatest living composer' (The New York Times) and  “...the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker). From his early taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot’s digital video opera Three Tales (2002), Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. 'There's just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them,' states The Guardian. In 1966 Steve Reich founded his own ensemble of three musicians, which rapidly grew to 18...
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Steve Reich was recently called "our greatest living composer" (The New York Times) and “...the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker). From his early taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot’s digital video opera Three Tales (2002), Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. "There's just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them," states The Guardian.

In 1966 Steve Reich founded his own ensemble of three musicians, which rapidly grew to 18 members or more. Since 1971, Steve Reich and Musicians have frequently toured the world, and have the distinction of performing to sold-out houses at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall and the Bottom Line Cabaret.

Reich's 1988 piece, Different Trains, marked a new compositional method, rooted in It's Gonna Rain and Come Out, in which speech recordings generate the musical material for musical instruments. The New York Times hailed Different Trains as "a work of such astonishing originality that breakthrough seems the only possible description."

Steve Reich's music has been performed by major orchestras and ensembles around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta, The Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by David Robertson, the Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw and the BBC Symphony conducted by Peter Eötvös. Over the years, he has received commissions from amongst others the Barbican Centre London, the Holland Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Vienna Festival and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Several noted choreographers have created dances to Steve Reich's music, including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylían, Jerome Robbins and Laura Dean.
Performing organizations around the world marked Steve Reich's 70th- birthday year, 2006, with festivals and special concerts.


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