Terry Riley Press Clips: April 17, 2009

April 11, 2009 http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5708

TERRY RILEY: In C - Carnegie Hall Presents - Sony Classical This celebrates the 40th anniversary of the LP of the piece of new music that launched the entire minimalist genre. TERRY RILEY: In C - Carnegie Hall Presents - Sony Classical 88697 45368 2, 42 min. ****: (Terry Riley, leader & sax; Margaret Hassell, the pulse; Lawrence Singer, oboe; Darline Reynard, bassoon; Jon Hassell, trumpet; Jerry Kirkbride, clarinet; David Shostac, flute; David Rosenboom, viola; Stuart Dempster, trombone; Edward Burham, vibes; Jan Williams, marimbaphone)

This reissue of the 1968 Columbia recording celebrates the 40th anniversary of the LP of the piece of new music that launched the entire minimalist genre. It is a visionary work that has changed the whole landscape of new music since its performance in Carnegie Hall in 1967. Terry Riley - known at the time for his all-night concerts of works involving keyboards, soprano sax, electronics and tape - created In C in 1964 for performance at the San Francisco Tape Music Center with the band including the likes of Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Morton Subotnick. The usually conservative music reviewer of the San Francisco Chronicle called it “Music Like None Other on Earth.” The work’s simple score is reproduced in the fold-out CD package. It consists of 53 very short figurations in the key of C, which can be played by any of the instruments participating. The musicians don’t have to be virtuosi, but those with an ability to improvise and listen to one another will do best. The pianist gives the continual, unchanging Pulse by striking the top two C octaves on the piano. (Those involved in the premiere all recall she wore gloves to protect her sore fingers.) Over this pulse and in sync with it the participants play each of the 53 figurations, moving from one to the next as the spirit moves them. (Performances eventually stipulated that none of the players could be more than five figures behind or ahead of the greater part of the ensemble.) The piece ends when all the players reach the final figure, which usually takes from 45 minutes to as long as 90 minutes. The music will probably strike first-time listeners as either the freshest and most freeing piece of new music they have ever heard, or something designed to deliberately drive them up the wall making even Reich and Glass sound like varied rapidly-developing music in comparison. Riley himself suggests imagining “you are lying in a field and there are cloud formations just passing over, and you’re just watching them form and re-form.” The digital remastering doesn’t sound any better than the original LP which I have. The whole thing seemed a bit tame to me this time, after all these years (I attended the Tape Music Center at that time), but it won’t seem tame to first-time hearers. The notes on the music are most interesting. Another interesting fact is that - at least on my Mac - when putting the disc in iTunes and thus accessing the GraceNote catalog, it is identified as not In C but as “Had to Cry Today” by Blind Faith! - John Sunier

April 3, 2009 http://www.buffalonews.com/gusto/story/628275.html

Place in history Buffalo ensemble’s recording of Riley’s ‘In C’ reissued BY JEFF SIMON Arts Editor It happened first in San Francisco in 1964. And then, in 1968, it happened again here when, as Jackson Brader’s new notes to the 45th anniversary remastered disc now put it, “Buffalo was suddenly New Music Central.” The late Lukas Foss and Allen Sapp had created the Creative and Performing Arts Center at the University at Buffalo. Buffalo Creative Associates — including trombonist Stuart Dempster and composer David Rosenboom — got together, performed Terry Riley’s “In C” on Dec. 19, 1967, in Carnegie Hall and subsequently recorded it for Columbia Records. Things would change ever afterward. The pianist wore white gloves. And Foss, writes Brader now, encouraged the audience to walk around during the piece — to hear it from all over the hall. Some wandered onto the stage. More importantly, their subsequent Columbia recording of Riley’s “In C” helped remake so much subsequent music in its own image. It goes without saying that it helped strengthen the cause of fellow minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass (who was racily known as Phil Glass back then). But David Foil and Larry Hamby write in the notes to the 45th anniversary edition of “In C”:“Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ is almost unimaginable without the example of ‘In C.’ Pete Townshend of the Who was so enamored of Riley’s music and creative energy that he celebrated the composer in the song ‘Baba O’Riley.’ ” The composer himself was pleased with the Buffalo ensemble’s recording. He told Brader: “I didn’t have to do any missionary work trying to convince somebody that this is going to be a good idea; they were all players experienced in playing contemporary music, and some of them were composers, too. The whole thing was done in three hours.” And here, beautifully remastered, is that original 1968 recording of “In C,” of which percussionist Jan Williams — long a gray eminence of Buffalo’s music — says “it changed me forever.” Among the many pieces of crucial Buffalo musical midwifery from that era, here is a splendid, newly burnished version of one of the era’s most important births.• Classical Terry Riley In C Performed by Creative Associates of the State University at Buffalo in 1968 [SONY Masterworks/Carnegie Hall]

★★★★

March 31, 2009

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=12156

TERRY RILEY In C Members of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts of New York at Buffalo Terry Riley Sony Classical- 45368 2(CD) Reference Recording - Riley (New Albion); Bang On A Can All Stars (Cantaloupe)

Terry Riley's In C (1964), the Magna Carta of Minimalism, turns 45 in 2009, and what better way to celebrate than for Sony/BMG to remaster the work's 1968 premiere recording from the original tape? In C comprises 53 melodic patterns that can be played or sung in sequence by any number of singers or instruments. The performers determine how many times they repeat a pattern before proceeding to the next. One can even drop out and listen, resuming later. The patterns can be played in unison or in canonic alignment at any dynamic level. Most performances lock in to a pulsing C-natural, usually provided by a pianist or a mallet percussionist. It goes without saying that every performance is unique, and no two recordings offer exactly the same piece. For example, Ictus and the Bang On A Can All Stars turn out suavely blended, slickly contoured renditions, while Riley's 1990 25th-anniversary performance on New Albion is altogether grittier and harder hitting. The grit factor emerges with even more urgency and excitement in this 1968 version, with its predominant reeds and brass--and Riley's soprano saxophone the driving force. About halfway through its 41-minute trajectory, the pulse quickens as the phrases grow more rhythmically elaborate, yet somehow the gathering momentum never grows frantic nor spins toward the edge of control. And with the CD medium's extended-play capacity, we're thankfully spared that ungodly electronic whooshing insert that demarcated the original LP side breaks. Sony/BMG's new transfer conveys a crisper, more vivid impact than the label's 1988 CD edition. A seminal release and a fun listen rolled into one! --Jed Distler

'In C' turns 45 with reissue, performance JONATHAN COHEN February 6, 2009 6:10 AM Billboard.com NEW YORK - Terry Riley's landmark minimalist composition, ''In C,'' will be reissued March 24 in celebration of its 45th anniversary. In addition, the piece will be performed on April 24 at New York's Carnegie Hall by Riley and some of the participants from the original 1964 recording. This edition, which Sony Classical says is the first remastering from the original session tapes, is part of a new branded series through Sony Classical and Carnegie Hall Presents. New liner notes feature interviews with Riley and the supporting musicians. ''In C'' comprises 53 short musical phrases which can be repeated ad infinitum, leading to performances as long as four hours. The musicians choose which phrase to play and for how long, making each performance unique. The piece - named for its constant pulse of C notes on the piano - was a huge influence on the future work of composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, the latter of whom participated in its first performance. AP-NY-02-06-09 0904EST