I got my first taste of the citywide Reich festival last night by way of BAM's dance tribute — Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker's quadruple bill of Piano Phase, Come Out, Violin Phase, and Clapping Music, together with Akram Khan's staging of the almost-new Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings, a gorgeous, borderline-Romantic score, of which more anon. Of the upcoming Reich events, the one that cannot be missed is the mainstage Carnegie bill of Electric Counterpoint (with Pat Metheny), Different Trains (with the Kronos), and Music for 18 Musicians (with Reich and his ensemble). This is for me the most exciting thing on the entire New York season schedule, at least until Karita Mattila and Anja Silja sing Jenufa at the Met. Some $47 parquet seats are still available, together with $28 seats in the balconies.... The Cleveland Orchestra gala at Carnegie was, as Tony Tommasini's Times review suggests, a technically impressive but somehow slightly snoozy affair. Tony mentions that the start of the second half was uncomfortably delayed by noisy late entrances in one of the high-priced boxes. As far as I could tell, the trouble was at least partly caused by Barbara Walters.... There are still tickets available for a New Yorker Festival appearance by the brilliant Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla, who helped engender the Rock en español movement, produced the CD of Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre, and won an Oscar for his Brokeback Mountain score.
