Reich’s tribute to Daniel Pearl ranks among the composer’s most brooding and discordant work, but it’s also lush, owing to his rare use of strings — a poignant nod to the reporter’s fiddling hobby. In the second movement, the L.A. Master Chorale chants some of Pearl’s last words (“I’m a Jewish American from Encino, California”), but the album ends with a reference to a Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys song that Pearl loved — evidence of Reich’s fascination with Pearl’s character, rather than his death.
Daniel Variations
Steve Reich
Nonesuch
Out April 8
$16.98
