Steve Reich - Piano Counterpoint (2011) (arr. Vincent Corver) North American Premiere - Vancouver, CANADA January 28th, 2013 Vicky Chow, pianist www.vickychow.com
Two observations: It's easy to forget how different from a standard classical performance this is, and I don't mean the fact that the other parts are recorded. In most chamber pieces with a piano part, while your LH or RH might temporarily interact with other players in the ensemble, they mostly feel like and behave as one part. Here, you have to be able to treat your hands as separate players. They are playing parts as different from each other as they are from the other parts, and for extended periods each hand will be interacting separately with another parts rather than interacting with the other hand. To make the performance engaging, it is not sufficient simply to listen to the pulse of the other parts and stay absolutely in time with them. You also have to maintain a constant awareness of what the other parts are doing, and why, and somehow ensure that each hand is separately able to seek out and respond to counter-rhythms. - In an ideal world, anyway. I am not sure that it is humanly possible to maintain such a level of concentration for the entire length of a piece like this! Second: It is just wonderful to see a classical pianist - well, grooving.
CETTE œuvre est d'une telle modernité, d'une telle fluidité interprétative et d'une telle richesse de composition, qu'à chaque nouvelle écoute, je la redécouvre, et reste sans voix, à nouveau et très ému. Merci tant à Steve REICH, le compositeur, qu'à Vicky Show la pianiste qui interprète avec une aisance surprenante, et ICI souriante très régulièrement. Merci encore. Le miracle de tous ces croisements très fluides des dix doigts de l'interprète est très chorégraphique, d'une liquidité et d'une souplesse phénoménales. Chaque doigt tente d'enrichir, avec une telle rapidité spatiale, avec un dialogue permanent, tant entre les dix, qu'à l' intérieure de l'interprète. Elle ne cesse de sourire, souvent même en lisant la composition sur la tablette. Comme si anticipait ce qui allait suivre. Est ce au total UNE méditation d'amour? ... attentive aux auditeurs dans la salle ... et à la fin tout le monde crie de joie, applaudit très bruyamment La musique de SR est encore ici sans égo, éclatante pour un solo dense, sur scène. Que serait ce cette dernière avec un.e danseur.se qui accompagnerait cette épouvante interprétation ? Personnellement, en l'écoutant à la deuxième fois, je me l'imaginais maladroitement. Merci SR votre musique est ici océanique, très pure, avec des millions d'aquatiques de toute sorte qui s'inter choregraphient sur les trois dimensions sans chef, ainsi qu'à la quatrième dimension. Celui du temps, sachant que dans l'espace, cinquième dimension, il n'y a pas de vitesse. Car la modernité de cette oeuvre, comme de l'interprétation, est atemporelle. Existe t'il une autre interprétation aussi ou plus puissante? En attendant, je réécoute celle ci en la redécouvrant à chaque fois, différemment. Merci pour ces moments de créativité.s. ET, svp malgré l'âge, donnez nous de nouvelles œuvres.
Some people tend to underestimate the difficulty of some of Steve’s music. I can assure you, especially with this arrangement, this is really, really, REALLY ridiculously hard to do. Playing the same pattern with different notes simultaneously while also having the hands offset is incredibly difficult. Not to mention the sheer amount of repetitions of the patterns there are. I can’t play piano, but I am a percussionist, and I’m very familiar with how frustrating things like this can be. Never underestimate the difficulty of something like this. I’m sure Steve is very proud.
I think most anyone that listens to his music grasps its difficulty. I find it hard to imagine he has a lot of casual listeners if you know what I mean. I will listen to Reich for literally hours, and I think most of his audience will too.
This comment section is pretty ignorant. It is indeed difficult in the beginning but once muscle memory kicks in it really is not as difficult as you would think. A lot of musicians with a reasonable percussionist background could learn this tune eventually.
_'100 handcrafted pianos a year from its single factory'_-- would explain why I never heard of Fazioli. Pricey little buggers. I might have one in my mansion when said mansion is built. Sounds so clean and rich in personality.
Hey Vicky I used this video performance in my Spin class to rave reviews. Easily one of the most inspiring pieces of music I’ve ever had the pleasure of leading. Thanks to you, your arranger and to Steve R. 🎹
I love it when musicians really get involved in the music. You can see how Vicky bobs from side to side and up and down. She was really enjoying listening to and playing the piece.
Diego Balaguer Did it work for you? I tried again, and sure enough, it sounds like it's in the same key. haha. Of course you have to modify the tempo of the melody. But, hey, it's all in good fun.
When I was listening to this I took my MP3 player out of my computer and in Windows 7 when you do that you hear these two notes and they are in key with this piece. haha Great performance of a great piece! There may be one little goof up at...a certain point in the video but when I saw e.g. "Music for 18 musicians" live one piano line got goofed up as well. When people are into the music I found small goof ups like that don't necessarily take them "out of the piece" if you will, you know? Anyway, I enjoy(ed) watching this video a lot! ^_^
You've turned it into a piano concerto - very cool. Makes me wonder what it would have sounded like if you'd used different instruments for the various voice - like Bluthners for the orchestral part and the Fazioli for the solo voice.
The "delay" you hear is not any kind of stereo effect but just the way the backing parts were arranged. The piece "Eight Lines" is another excellent example of how a "delay" effect is created simply by placing the phrase in another part or using a creative doubling.
I wonder why it's labeled "Piano Counterpoint" ,when it's known to each and everyone as "Six Pianos"? Just like "Octet" is later called "Eight Lines"? Apart from this - I like the woman playing, she definetely loves Reich, AS I DO
Stoll Silwe Piano Counterpoint is a rearrangement of Six Pianos. You'll notice that the first melody being built up (starts at 0:25) is slightly different from the melody in the original piece. Why it was re-arranged, I'm not sure. I assume it was written to be performed as a solo piece against prerecorded tracks but I could be wrong. Steve's album "Radio Rewrite" has a great recording of the re-arranged version, I highly recommend you check it out.
+Stoll Silwe Did some more research, Piano Counterpoint is essentially Six Pianos, but rewritten for a solo player playing against 4 prerecorded tracks. Each hand plays/builds a different melody, and some of those melodies were altered to make them easier to play with just one hand.
You heard it, then? (i.e. the "slight difference") Wow! I admit, I haven't heard Vicky Chow's version through - but I'm not interested that much in the "mathematics" of building up patterns. In Reich, I love especially the resulting sound. And with 90 % of his work, this is exactly the case. Thanks for you information, though. Guess you're perfectly right. And I'm gonna listen to "Radio Rewrite". By the way, do you happen to know why it's called "RADIO" Rewrite?
Steve Reich's 'Octet' was later know as 'Eight Lines' because of the change in it's instrumentation. Originally, 'Octet' was scored for just that, an octet consisting of 2 Clarinets in Bb (both doubling on Bass Clarinets in Bb, Flutes and one player also doubling on Piccolo), 2 Pianos, 1 1st Violin, 1 2nd Violin, 1 Viola and 1 Violoncello. However, Reich later rescored the piece so it called for two string quartets instead of one and the woodwind parts were split up. The reasons for this were firstly so that the Violins did not have to play the awkward double stops that appear at the beginning of the piece and that the Viola and Violoncello did not have to play the difficult quaver note passages that appear a little further on and secondly so that the woodwind parts did not require extensive doubling. The piece is now called 'Eight Lines' because the score always has eight lines of music at a time.
Aspiring Pianist Thank you So "Octet" is "Eight Lines"anyway, and 8 lines needs more musicians than an octet - right? I seldom count them when I listen. What is meant by "double stop"?
