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Joshua Kosman April 15, 2021
Esa-Pekka Salonen (front) and members of the San Francisco Symphony perform Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music” as part of the SoundBox program “Patterns.” Photo: Kristen Loken
“In C,” Terry Riley’s landmark musical mosaic from 1964, was the first real minimalist piece, according to San Francisco Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. He makes the claim with plenty of emphasis and vocal italics, so you just know it has to be true.
But Salonen’s assertion comes midway through “Patterns,” a beguiling new online concert presented as part of the Symphony’s SoundBox series, and everything else in the hour-long program serves to complicate our understanding of this history in deeply pleasurable ways.