Journal Sunday, February 12, 2012

Steve Reich's "Double Sextet / 2x5" May Be "The Downtown Version of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane," Says Sequenza 21

The new album featuring the first recordings of Steve Reich's Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, performed by eighth blackbird, and 2x5, played by Bang on a Can, is due out on Nonesuch in just under three weeks. "Beautifully poised throughout," says the BBC, "Double Sextet stands as arguably one of Reich’s finest works."

While the limited-edition, signed score pages from Double Sextet that came with the first pre-orders are all accounted for, you can still reserve a copy of the CD in the Nonesuch Store and receive the complete album as high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s at no additional cost starting release day, September 14.

The good folks at the contemporary classical music site Sequenza 21 have already got an advance copy of the music, and, while they're keeping the lid on the full review till the record's release, they did have this to say in the interim: "Suffice it to say, if you’re a regular visitor to Sequenza 21, you’re likely going to want one, possibly three, copies of this recording. An intergenerational summit—minimalist elder statesman meets post-minimal/totalist ace performers—that, in terms of importance, is more or less the Downtown version of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane."

Read more at sequenza21.com.

There, the site has also posted a video some rehearsal footage featuring Reich and the members of Bang on a Can performing 2x5. The video comes from a larger retrospective FLYP media published about Nonesuch last year. You clip experience that complete article at flypmedia.com.

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