Steve Reich Drumming
is the second release on
Cantaloupe
by Brooklyn-based percussion ensemble
So Percussion
.
Reich
's
minimalist
master work doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation or error -- you either play it well or you don't, and if one person in the group is a little off it upsets the whole apple cart.
plays the work exactly as it goes, and are helped in this performance by
Steve Reich
veterans
Rebecca Armstrong
and
Jay Clayton
in providing the vocal parts.
Erin Lesser
plays the scant, but important, piccolo part. This is
"Drumming"
on a diet, as there are only four players used in the lineup of
that made this recording. Presumably, at least some of it is overdubbed, as the score calls for nine percussionists. It is also played at a significantly faster clip than in the famous 1974
Deutsche Grammophon
first recording of the work, which topped out at 85 minutes, but it is not as fast as
's 1987 recording for
Nonesuch
, barely over an hour-long.
's overall tempo is chosen well, and brings the work in between the two poles of the composer's timings at 70 minutes. This performance follows
's score without being so much as a hair off, yet compared to
's own, now rather quaint 1974 rendering, the
recording is somewhat lacking in terms of a distinctive character -- it is like the smooth surface of a pond with exactly symmetrical ripples flowing towards the land. Yet
"Drumming,"
played up to speed with no mistakes doesn't allow for a lot in the way of variation -- properly played, it is sort of like a machine. Nonetheless, one will not find a better representation of
on disc; it is almost like
Pierre Boulez
'
recording of
Le Sacre du Printemps
in that, were one to look at a particular spot in the score, together with
's recording, what one hears is exactly what one sees.
's engineering, too, is excellent. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis