In Davies Hall tonight, the audience was treated to Michael Tilson Thomas'
programming of "The Desert Music" and the "Eroica" as part of the San
Francisco Symphony subscription series.  MTT has a long association with
the Reich work, and apparently he thinks very highly of it, judging by
the following remarkable introduction in the Symphony program:

   "When MTT and the Brooklyn Philharmonic introduced `The Desert Music'
   to the US in 1984, it was the largest-scale work that Steve Reich
   had written to date [get ready!] - much as the `Eroica' was Beethoven's
   biggest piece when it was first heard in 1805. And, as Beethoven
   explored a broader and more volatile emotional territory in his Third
   Symphony, Reich." etc.

The author is Ronald Gallman (not, obviously, Michael Steinberg, who
retired last season and would have given up the job if he had to write
this), and he actually continues with this half-derriere'd comparison.
Isn't coupling the two works enough - must the two be actually compared?

MTT and the orchestra struggled manfully with this 50-minute piece of
unrelieved pulsating, throbbing, and speaking in tongues, surely one of
the most extravagant and empty Minimalist substitutes for music, giving
ostinato a bad, no, a worse name.  (And, in a larger scheme of things,
compare Glass and Adams - not Beethoven, please - with the Reich of then
and now, and you'll see that while the caravan moved on, Reich is still
doing the same mind-numbing stuff.)

The transition from the Reich to the Beethoven produced some unexpected
results.  and benefits.  The Allegro was "clean," measured, clearly -
perhaps excessively - articulated, as if the musicians were still counting
as required by Reich.  It was a fine performance, but if it didn't change
and develop some way, that ridiculous Reich comparison would have some
strange justification, at least by way of the performance.

Just in time, something wonderful happened:  shortly after the opening of
the Funeral March, MTT and the string sections went into a contemplative,
pure, spiritual space, and made time stand still.  Of the zillions of
"Eroica" recordings, I heard very few that measured up to this part of the
symphony; it was simply glorious.  The Scherzo was fun and vibrant, the
treacherous opening of the Finale handled expertly, woodwinds especially
(and the brass a notch below, but still very well) surged towards the Big
Finish, and when it came, there was nothing coarse or ostentatious about
it, just right.

Long after the Reich disappeared from memory, fellow composer Beethoven's
Adagio - in a rare and grand performance - still pulsated on, not numbing
the mind, but nourishing the heart.

Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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