Pulse / Quartet
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565676
Track Listing
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114:21
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26:46
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33:59
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45:53
News & Reviews
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Nonesuch Records releases the first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, on June 10, 2022, with the vinyl due August 5. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3). Album preorders are available here now. A video of the composer talking about Reich/Richter may be seen here.
Composer Steve Reich is on the Song Exploder podcast to talk with host Hrishikesh Hirway about the first movement of his groundbreaking 1988 piece Different Trains and the childhood experiences that inspired it. The New York Times declared the piece, which Kronos Quartet performed on the Grammy Award–winning first recording, “a work of such originality that ‘breakthrough’ seems the only possible description.” You can hear what he had to say here.
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About This Album
Nonesuch releases Steve Reich's Pulse / Quartet on February 2, 2018; the album is also available on vinyl LP on March 30. Pulse (2015) is performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble—an artist collective committed to transforming the way music is created and experienced—and Quartet (2013) is played by the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble led by percussionist Colin Currie that specializes in the music of Steve Reich; these are also the ensembles that gave the world premiere performances of the respective works.
Reich says, "Pulse, for winds, strings, piano and electric bass, was completed in 2015 and was, in part, a reaction to Quartet, in which I changed keys more frequently than in any previous work. In Pulse I felt the need to stay put harmonically and spin out smoother wind and string melodic lines in canon over a constant pulse in the electric bass and or piano. From time to time this constant pulse is accented differently through changing hand alternation patterns on the piano. All in all, a calmer more contemplative piece."
He continues, "Quartet, when mentioned in the context of concert music, is generally assumed to mean string quartet. In my case, the quartet that has played a central role in many of my pieces (besides the string quartet) is that of two pianos and two percussion. It appears like that or in expanded form with more pianos or more percussion in The Desert Music; Sextet; Three Movements; The Four Sections; The Cave; Dance Patterns; Three Tales; You Are (Variations); Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings; Daniel Variations; Double Sextet; and Radio Rewrite. In Quartet, there is just this group alone: two vibes and two pianos.
"The piece is one of the more complex I have composed. It frequently changes key and often breaks off continuity to pause or take up new material. Though the parts are not unduly difficult, it calls for a high level of ensemble virtuosity. The form is one familiar throughout history: fast, slow, fast, played without pause. The slow movement introduces harmonies not usually found in my music."
Steve Reich has been called "our greatest living composer" (New York Times) and "the most original musical thinker of our time" (New Yorker). His path has embraced not only 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 April 2009 Steve Reich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Double Sextet. Nonesuch has released twenty-three Steve Reich albums, beginning in 1985 with The Desert Music and including two box sets; his most recent album was Radio Rewrite (2014).
Credits
MUSICIANS
Pulse
Performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble
Josh Modney, Gabby Diaz, Michi Wiancko, Pauline Kim, violin
Kyle Armbrust, Wendy Richman, viola
Claire Chase, Alice Teyssier, flute
Joshua Rubin, Campbell MacDonald, clarinet
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Greg Chudzik, bassQuartet
Performed by Colin Currie Group
Colin Currie, Sam Walton, vibraphone
Philip Moore, Simon Crawford-Phillips, pianoPRODUCTION CREDITS
Pulse
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded May 28, 2017, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Engineered by John Kilgore
Production Assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall; the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director; the Barbican, London; KölnMusik - Kölner Philharmonie; and Philharmonie de Paris.
World Premiere: November 1, 2016, by International Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by David Robertson at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.Quartet
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded May 30, 2016, at Air Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London
Engineered by Mike Hatch
Mixed by John Kilgore at John Kilgore Sound & Recording, New York, NY
Co-commissioned by Southbank Centre, Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, Cité de la musique, and KölnMusik - Kölner Philharmonie.
World Premiere: October 12, 2014, by the Colin Currie Group, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London.Album Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
Cover photograph: Bay/Sky, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1984 by Joel Meyerowitz
©Joel Meyerowitz
Design by Ben TousleyExecutive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
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September 20, 2011
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Steve Reich's Pulse / Quartet includes the world-premiere recordings of Pulse, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Quartet, played by the Colin Currie Group. The Los Angeles Times notes the "lyricism, gorgeous instrumental textures and affecting harmonies" of Pulse, and the New York Times says of Quartet: "Written for two vibraphones and two pianos, Quartet is Mr. Reich's first piece for those two instruments alone, and the combination is ingenious and seductive, and deployed with subtle craftsmanship."
Nonesuch releases Steve Reich's Pulse / Quartet on February 2, 2018; the album is also available on vinyl LP on March 30. Pulse (2015) is performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble—an artist collective committed to transforming the way music is created and experienced—and Quartet (2013) is played by the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble led by percussionist Colin Currie that specializes in the music of Steve Reich; these are also the ensembles that gave the world premiere performances of the respective works.
Reich says, "Pulse, for winds, strings, piano and electric bass, was completed in 2015 and was, in part, a reaction to Quartet, in which I changed keys more frequently than in any previous work. In Pulse I felt the need to stay put harmonically and spin out smoother wind and string melodic lines in canon over a constant pulse in the electric bass and or piano. From time to time this constant pulse is accented differently through changing hand alternation patterns on the piano. All in all, a calmer more contemplative piece."
He continues, "Quartet, when mentioned in the context of concert music, is generally assumed to mean string quartet. In my case, the quartet that has played a central role in many of my pieces (besides the string quartet) is that of two pianos and two percussion. It appears like that or in expanded form with more pianos or more percussion in The Desert Music; Sextet; Three Movements; The Four Sections; The Cave; Dance Patterns; Three Tales; You Are (Variations); Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings; Daniel Variations; Double Sextet; and Radio Rewrite. In Quartet, there is just this group alone: two vibes and two pianos.
"The piece is one of the more complex I have composed. It frequently changes key and often breaks off continuity to pause or take up new material. Though the parts are not unduly difficult, it calls for a high level of ensemble virtuosity. The form is one familiar throughout history: fast, slow, fast, played without pause. The slow movement introduces harmonies not usually found in my music."
Steve Reich has been called "our greatest living composer" (New York Times) and "the most original musical thinker of our time" (New Yorker). His path has embraced not only 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 April 2009 Steve Reich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Double Sextet. Nonesuch has released twenty-three Steve Reich albums, beginning in 1985 with The Desert Music and including two box sets; his most recent album was Radio Rewrite (2014).
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Pulse
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded May 28, 2017, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Engineered by John Kilgore
Production Assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall; the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director; the Barbican, London; KölnMusik - Kölner Philharmonie; and Philharmonie de Paris.
World Premiere: November 1, 2016, by International Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by David Robertson at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.
Quartet
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded May 30, 2016, at Air Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London
Engineered by Mike Hatch
Mixed by John Kilgore at John Kilgore Sound & Recording, New York, NY
Co-commissioned by Southbank Centre, Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, Cité de la musique, and KölnMusik - Kölner Philharmonie.
World Premiere: October 12, 2014, by the Colin Currie Group, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London.
Album Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
Cover photograph: Bay/Sky, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1984 by Joel Meyerowitz
©Joel Meyerowitz
Design by Ben Tousley
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

565676
MUSICIANS
Pulse
Performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble
Josh Modney, Gabby Diaz, Michi Wiancko, Pauline Kim, violin
Kyle Armbrust, Wendy Richman, viola
Claire Chase, Alice Teyssier, flute
Joshua Rubin, Campbell MacDonald, clarinet
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Greg Chudzik, bass
Quartet
Performed by Colin Currie Group
Colin Currie, Sam Walton, vibraphone
Philip Moore, Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano