The Guardian Praises Steve Reich’s Newest Release

The Guardian praised the “pitch perfect performances” on Steve Reich‘s new Pulse/Quartet in a recent review of the Nonesuch-issued disc. “It’s the seamless, intertwining canons in the woodwind and strings” in Pulse, wrote the paper’s Andrew Clements, “that give the shape and character to this ravishing quarter-hour movement, with airy, weightless textures.” Of Quartet, he wrote, “Its hard-edged rhythms… and the percussive textures generated by pairs of pianos and vibraphones have been persistent signatures in his music, though the harmonic subtleties and the colours they paint here are beguilingly new.” Clements noted that “both works are performed by the groups for which they were written, Pulse for the US-based International Contemporary Ensemble, Quartet for the Colin Currie Group, and the close-up perspective of the recordings suits both pieces perfectly.”

Read the full review here.