My first performance at Carnegie Hall was on January 18,
1973, playing electric organ with Michael Tilson Thomas and members of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra in my piece Four
Organs. The other works were by J. C. Bach, Liszt, and Bartók. If you think
a piece for four rock organs and maracas was an odd choice of repertoire for a
Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription concert, you’re right. I believe MTT not
only believed in my piece, but thought it would prove provocative, and indeed
it did. We had a hard time finishing the performance because there was so much
noise from the audience. At the end, there was an avalanche of boos and bravos.
I was white as a sheet, but MTT was jubilant, recalling the premiere of The Rite of Spring and exclaiming, “This
is history, this is history.” Harold C. Schonberg, then chief music critic for The New York Times, wrote, “The audience
reacted as though red-hot needles were being inserted under fingernails … At
the end there were lusty boos. There also was a contingent that screamed
approval. At least there was some excitement in the hall, which is more than
can be said when most avant-garde music in being played.”
It was quite a different situation February 19, 1980, when
my ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, performed an all-Reich program of three
of my then new works: Octet; Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards;
and Music for a Large Ensemble. Mr.
Schonberg changed his tone a bit, writing “Last night, Carnegie Hall saw the
premieres of three pieces by Steve Reich, and just about every seat in the hall
was taken. It was a young audience, and an attentive one. During each piece,
everybody listened quietly, obviously absorbed, with an almost religious kind
of dedication … Most listeners seem to enjoy experiencing this kind of music
with their eyes closed … Whatever his music means, however, is lost to these
ears. Perhaps he composes meta-music. It is a strange phenomena.”
Another performance of mine at Carnegie Hall was on June 23,
1990, again with my own ensemble, performing Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ and Music for 18 Musicians. Interestingly,
this concert was presented as part of the JVC Jazz Festival and beside my own
ensemble, the World Saxophone Quartet performed. The concert was well-attended
and well-received by an audience of both classical and jazz listeners.
In 2003, Carnegie Hall brilliantly added Zankel Hall to its
main building and expanded musical life in New York City. There was now a new
approximately 700-seat concert hall where all kinds of new music, jazz, rock,
and world music were regularly presented, attracting a new and generally
younger audience. During the opening concerts for Zankel Hall in September
2003, David Robertson conducted my Tehillim
with Synergy Vocals, and Paul Hillier conducted Proverb with his Theatre of Voices together with members of my own
ensemble.
In 2006, during the Steve
Reich @ 70 concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and BAM, participants
in a Professional Training Workshop performed City Life, Triple Quartet,
Sextet, and Music for Pieces of Wood in Zankel Hall on October 19. Three days
later at Zankel Hall, Steve Reich and Musicians—together with Synergy Vocals
and conductor Bradley Lubman—performed the US premiere of Daniel Variations, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. The program
also included Cello Counterpoint,
performed by Maya Beiser; and Drumming—Part
One and Piano Phase / Video Phase,
performed by David Cossin. The major concert of that entire series was
presented at Carnegie Hall on October 21, 2006, with my own ensemble and guest
artists Pat Metheny and Kronos Quartet, performing Electric Counterpoint, Different
Trains, and Music for 18 Musicians.
Now five years later, on April 30, four of our finest young
ensembles perform four of my most recent works: Double Sextet, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and performed by
eighth blackbird and friends of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, which won the
Pulitzer Prize in 2009; 2x5, my first
work for rock instruments, performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars and Friends; Mallet Quartet, performed by Sō
Percussion; and my latest work, WTC 9/11,
co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and performed by Kronos Quartet.
I would like to thank all the people at Carnegie Hall over
the years, including Judith Arron, Ara Guzelimian, Robert Harth, Clive
Gillinson, Jeremy Geffen, Kathy Schuman, Amy Rhodes, Gino Francesconi, and many
others. Performing and being performed at the greatest concert hall in America
is not something I or any other musician has ever taken for granted. My
gratitude to everyone at Carnegie Hall for their long-lived and ongoing
support.
—Steve Reich