Susanna Mälkki - Steve Reich Runner Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Nonesuch Records releases the first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki, available digitally and on CD on September 30, 2022; a vinyl LP version will be released on December 2.

Reich says Runner is written “for a large ensemble of winds, percussion, pianos, and strings. While the tempo remains more or less constant, there are five movements, played without pause, that are based on different note durations. First, even sixteenths, then irregularly accented eighths, then a very slowed-down version of the standard bell pattern from Ghana in quarters, fourth a return to the irregularly accented eighths, and finally a return to the sixteenths but now played as pulses by the winds for as long as a breath will comfortably sustain them. The title was suggested by the rapid opening and my awareness that, like a runner, I would have to pace the piece to reach a successful conclusion.”

“Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is an extension of the Baroque concerto grosso where there is more than one soloist,” the composer continues. “Here there are twenty soloists—all regular members of the orchestra, including the first stand strings and winds, as well as two vibraphones and two pianos. The piece is in five movements, though the tempo never changes, only the note value of the constant pulse in the pianos. Thus, an arch form: sixteenths, eighths, quarters, eighths, sixteenths. Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is modeled on my Runner, which has the same five movement form.”

Nonesuch has recorded every new piece of music by Steve Reich since 1985, beginning with The Desert Music and continuing through 2018’s Pulse/Quartet, resulting in twenty-two albums and the two box sets Phases in 2006 and Works: 1965-1995 in 1997. Most recently, the label released his Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, in June 2022. The Times (London) said, “What a delight … to be able to focus … on the music, delivered here with a clever mix of pinprick precision and reverberant haze by 14 members of … Ensemble Intercontemporain … The more intently you listen, the more subtleties emerge among the shifting, criss-crossing textures and phrases, sometimes coloured with gentle melancholy … but decisively upbeat by the end. Reich/Richter is an ear-tickling tonic and a happy companion to Reich’s … newly published book, Conversations.” Nonesuch will put out a collection of Reich’s complete works in 2023.

TRACKLIST

01. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Runner: I. Sixteenths
02. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Runner: II. Eighths
03. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Runner: III. Quarters
04. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Runner: IV. Eighths
05. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Runner: V. Sixteenths
06. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Music for Ensemble and Orchestra: I. Sixteenths
07. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Music for Ensemble and Orchestra: II. Eighths
08. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Music for Ensemble and Orchestra: III. Quarters
09. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Music for Ensemble and Orchestra: IV. Eighths
10. Los Angeles Philharmonic - Music for Ensemble and Orchestra: V. Sixteenths



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