eighth blackbird plays Reich’s Double Sextet on new CD (out Sep 14)
eighth blackbird’s much-anticipated new recording of Steve Reich’s Double Sextet will be released by Nonesuch on September 14. Described by the composer as “one of [his] best works,” Double Sextet (2007) was commissioned by and written for eighth blackbird – “the straight-A students of the contemporary scene” (Washington Post) – who gave the work its world premiere in 2008. It won Reich the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 and features prominently in eighth blackbird’s programming; after a recent performance, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns observed, “Double Sextet is…among the finest pieces of our time. … Music should induce ecstasy. Both the piece and the performing musicians succeeded on that front – to say the least.” The new CD is the group’s first recording since strange imaginary animals, whose two Grammys include the award for Best Chamber Music Performance (2008).
Commissioned by and written for eighth blackbird, Double Sextet is scored for two identical sextets, each comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone, and piano. On the new CD eighth blackbird plays against its own pre-taped recording, the way Reich originally conceived the work, and he pronounces the finished result “a sensational recording.”
The Pulitzer committee described Double Sextet as “a major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear.” By juxtaposing live and taped musicians, it recalls several of Reich’s compositions in the “Counterpoint” series, as well as his ensemble pieces Different Trains and Triple Quartet. The composer explains: “It’s the idea of writing basically unison canons – the same timbre playing against itself, so that when they intertwine, you don’t hear the individual voice; you hear the composite. Now, if you have several composites going on at the same time, you really get to an interesting situation, and that’s what’s going on in Double Sextet.”
For eighth blackbird, as flutist Tim Munro explained soon after the Pulitzer Prize was awarded, “the piece is a skillful, imaginative and engaging distillation of Reich’s work over the past 40 years, featuring funky riffs, soulful lyricism, and playful banter. The adrenalin rush we get performing this piece is very intense, and it leaves us wired for the whole night. It’s certainly as close as I’ll ever get to being a rock star.” He added, “We’re not surprised by the award, given the overwhelmingly positive reception with which the piece has been received around the world.”
One such enthusiastic response came from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns, who considered Double Sextet “among the finest pieces of our time,” explaining: “More than earlier Reich, it tips from exaltation to menace on a dime.” Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed agreed; describing the piece as a “kind of explosion of fractured rhythms that never ceases to amaze the ear,” he judged the group’s interpretation “a really good, rocking, rollicking performance.” After the European premiere in Liverpool, the Guardian’s Tim Ashley called eighth blackbird “a virtuoso group” and singled out its ability to “sustain the ferocious complexity of Reich’s counterpoint with almost nonchalant ease.”
As part of a program entitled “The Only Moving Thing,” eighth blackbird has spent two seasons extensively touring the work – sometimes in its original form, and sometimes with the help of six additional live musicians – and consistently generating such praise. As a result, the group’s premiere recording of the piece is avidly awaited, especially after the success of its previous album, strange imaginary animals. Released by Cedille Records in 2006, that disc scored two 2008 Grammy Awards, for “Best Chamber Music Performance” and “Producer of the Year, Classical,” as well being nominated for “Best Classical Contemporary Composition” (for Jennifer Higdon’s Zaka). Naming strange imaginary animals “CD Choice of the Month” and awarding it full marks for both performance and sound, BBC Music magazine reported: “eighth blackbird play like musicians possessed; excited by the new, determined that their CD audiences will be too, they take wing, soaring on an upthrust of precision-tooled virtuosity.”
Below are further details of the new CD and of eighth blackbird’s upcoming performances of Double Sextet, which include appearances at Carnegie Hall and London’s Barbican Hall.
eighth blackbird: new recording
Label: Nonesuch
Date: September 14
Repertoire:
Steve Reich: Double Sextet (2007) performed by eighth blackbird
Steve Reich: 2×5 (2008) performed by Bang on a Can
eighth blackbird: upcoming appearances featuring Double Sextet
October 26; Nacogdoches, TX
“The Only Moving Thing”
Stephen F. Austin State University
October 28; Kingsville, TX
“The Only Moving Thing”
Texas A&M University
April 30; New York City
“Music of Steve Reich”
Carnegie Hall
May 7, 8; London, UK
“Music of Steve Reich”
Barbican Hall
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© 21C Media Group, August 2010