MUSIC REVIEW : WEST COAST PREMIERE OF REICH WORK

Just over a year after its world premiere, and merely seven months after reaching the United States, Steve Reich’s massive--the faithful have compared it to Mahler--”The Desert Music” received its first West Coast hearing Saturday night.

With the composer present, the 49-minute work enlisted forces including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, extra percussion players and 27 members of the L.A. Master Chorale.

In Royce Hall, UCLA, these forces, led by Neal Stulberg, gave “The Desert Music” what seemed a fair hearing. As might have been predicted, a large audience--made up mostly of young people and composers of every age--accorded the performance a standing ovation. Still, the work failed to thrill all hearts.

Reich has used short excerpts from the poems of William Carlos Williams in this five-part, arched work. A steady beat characterizes all five movements; so does the continuous clink of pitched percussion instruments (including two pianos and an electric piano). Reich’s signature device, the relentless repetition of ever-changing, clearly tonal chords, appears throughout, with small breaks in its chain. The piece is loud, though not painfully so; what makes it abrasive is its unchanging dynamic.

Though the composer’s helpful, descriptive and explanatory program notes say otherwise, the texts, at least on this occasion, are not all-important. As enunciated inconsistently by nine vocal trios (each singing around a microphone) from the Master Chorale, the choral contributions seem to be a mere accessory to the real action of the piece, which is instrumental.

The disappointment in this performance--apparently well prepared in all departments, certainly vigorously and authoritatively conducted by Stulberg--lay in the failure of the words to inspire the composer and move the listener. At no point in this largely unmodulated reading could one discern a direct connection between words and sound; the flattering acoustics in the new Royce delivered clean and undistorted playing and singing, but could not vary dynamics left unvaried by the participants.

Who is at fault here? Probably the composer, possibly the conductor, maybe the hall. What one heard, despite what Reich’s annotations claimed, mostly resembled itself through its generous length. In many of Reich’s earlier works, development seems an integral part; in this one, which some have called his masterpiece, no development is apprehendable on first hearing.

The first half of the event was devoted to another inconclusive performance, this of J.S. Bach’s “Magnificat.” Here, Stulberg’s stylish, text-oriented and well-paced approach was not always realized in a scruffy reading from the reduced orchestra and five strong vocal soloists (Diane Thomas, Jacalyn Wehmhoff, Nancy Fontana, Stephen Amerson and Peter Derick). On the other hand, 36 members of the Master Chorale sang joyously, accurately and with consistent beauty of sound.