Different trains


Norman Lebrecht can get it horribly wrong or horribly right. Back in 2006 he wrote that music blogs have 'nutritional value ... lower than a bag of crisps'. Which doesn't stop the Royal Academy of Music quoting this one in their 2009 prospectus.

But Norman's interview with Steve Reich, which was aired on BBC Radio 3 last night, was a quite superb example of the interviewer knowing when to keep his mouth shut and letting the subject talk. These moments are rare in radio - listen to it on the BBC iPlayer or as a podcast. But hurry because it is only there until August 4. And talking of Norman here is an interesting website.

Now playing - The Smith Quartet performing Reich's Different Trains. This Signum Classics CD also includes the composer's Triple Quartet which is recomended to readers who haven't yet 'got' Reich. Follow the Different Trains thread here and here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Unknown said…
A good interview -- but very, very American in Reich's perplexed world view. And I do get a bit irritated by this fixation on Daniel Pearl, not only from Reich, sad story though that was.
4:22 pm
Pliable said…
David, I'd have to agree with you 100%.

I have to say I was very surprised at Reich's narrow world viewpoint and also his personalisation of the 9/11 attacks.

Interesting contrast with Britten -

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2007/05/since-i-believe.html
4:59 pm
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