Colin Currie Group review – Steve Reich’s music is still bedazzling — SkimNews
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- Steve Reich composed In All Your Ways, a new work premiered in London, at age 90, drawing its rhythmic pattern from Proverbs 3:5-6.
- Colin Currie Group performed four major late works by Reich, including Radio Rewrite, Double Sextet, and Quartet, emphasizing his post-70 output over earlier classics.
- Colin Currie conducted a tightly disciplined performance of Radio Rewrite, a piece inspired by two Radiohead songs, maintaining a cool, precise ensemble sound.
- Double Sextet was performed with exacting precision, though the review notes greater physical separation between the two ensembles would have improved sonic clarity.
- Quartet was rendered in a 'luminous' interpretation by Currie and Owen Gunnell on vibraphones, showcasing Reich’s minimalist purity in a stripped-down, four-instrument setting.
- In All Your Ways, written for 16 instruments, displayed Reich’s rhythmic vitality and inventive power, described as a 'bedazzling song without words' that defied expectations for a composer in his tenth decade.
Why it matters: Reich’s late works, performed with precision and reverence, demonstrate that his creative force remains potent well into his 90s, challenging assumptions about artistic decline with age. The focus on post-70 compositions reframes his legacy around sustained innovation, not just 1970s minimalism.
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