“Percussion masters the Colin Currie Group are joined by Synergy Vocals for four decades of Reich, including the minimalist icon’s latest work, Traveler’s Prayer.
Steve Reich’s philosophy of ‘music as a gradual process’ has attracted listeners from all traditions, ages and nationalities.
This concert combines Reich’s mesmeric, vibrating musical canvasses with his emerging interest in melody and contrast.
In the 1980s, Reich started to reflect on his Jewish heritage. An early result was Tehillim, in which the rhythms of Hebrew psalm texts bring a new fluidity to Reich’s sturdy patterns.
Quartet explores new harmonies, shifting keys and breaking continuities to ‘ingenious and seductive’ (New York Times) effect while Runner sees Reich pull delectable melodies out of his pulsating textures.
Reich wrote Traveler’s Prayer, for voices, strings and percussion, while stuck in lockdown in California.
Its title refers to the Wayfarer’s Prayer from Hebrew ritual while the work explores the idea of journeys both mortal and real.
It is, says Reich, ‘a piece in which there is no audible beat at all.’”
The performance happens at the Southbank Centre on Tuesday 19th October at the Royal Festival Hall
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