He may be in to his eighth decade, but like many classical composers as they approach old age, Steve Reich shows no sign of letting the creative fires burn out. Indeed, his Daniel Variations, when premiered at the Barbican as the climax of their seventieth birthday festival for the composer, indicated he was entering a new stylistic phase.
Written for what Reich considers to be 'his' orchestra, with four pianos providing the rhythmic and harmonic base for the music, the variations contain music of an emotional power and anguish rarely glimpsed in the composer's output.
The reason for this becomes clear with the subject matter, for this is essentially Reich's response to 9/11 and its aftermath. Whereas contemporary John Adams provided an almost immediate show of feeling to the twin towers tragedy with The Transmigration Of Souls, Reich examines the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, bringing together Pearl's writing and texts from the Old Testament book of Daniel.
When expressed by the members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale on this performance, the words carry a latent power matched by the music. Even the basic introduction of the second section, "My name is Daniel Pearl", carries weight in the vocal delivery, matched in the jagged violins that supply their own commentary towards the end. The work's very opening, meanwhile, is a hugely arresting block chord from the four pianists that stokes the fire of the entire first section, leading on to discordant rather than consonant harmonies.
An eerie calm brings in the third of the four sections, as the choir sing "let the dream fall on the dreaded", and shows how the composer has developed his style to write effective slow movements, something that his rhythmic vitality should not in theory allow.
This also shows through in the contemporaneous Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings from a year earlier. A crisp performance from the London Sinfonietta finds the characteristic Reich momentum powering the first section, though even here there is more room for the melodic motifs to breathe.
The slow section is marked by beautiful restraint, with longer, sustained notes drawing out the harmonies and showing the concentrated thoughtfulness that now runs through the composer's music.
It's the Daniel Variations that make the keenest impact on this disc though, and prove to be the most vital of Reich's recent works. Given a strong performance such as this, it is impossible not to be moved by the message that we live in troubled times - but also that with strength of character, found in the fourth section of this piece, they can be overcome.
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