If you have been looking to see what’s on at The Glasshouse, you’ll have noticed one name figures prominently in the coming days – that of American composer Steve Reich.
People will be travelling from near and far, including a significant number from overseas, to enjoy a long weekend of music marking his 90th birthday on October 3.
The Steve Reich at 90 programme, featuring 12 talks and performances over three days, has been curated by Scottish percussionist Colin Currie who is one of the leading interpreters of Reich’s work.
He is also something of a super-fan, as quickly becomes apparent.
Invited for a meeting with James Thomas, head of the classical programme at The Glasshouse, Colin recalls popping down from Glasgow excited and full of ideas.
Having performed at The Glasshouse once before, he understood the potential.
“It seemed to me this place could have been purpose-built for a presentation of Steve’s work, with all its different spaces,” he recalls.
Having no idea at first how extensive the Reich celebration would be, he remembers he “kept on hurling ideas”.
“We’ve ended up with this extraordinary programme.
“I think nowhere else in the world will have such an intense concentration of Steve’s music in the whole of his 90th anniversary year.
“It’s something to be proud of for the venue and the area.”
Among the pieces audiences will hear is Clapping Music, performed by two people clapping (in this case Colin and Royal Northern Sinfonia percussionist Jude Carlton), and Drumming Part 1, in which four musicians on eight bongo drums produce a rhythm that grows in intensity.
A highlight of the first evening concert in Sage One will be The Desert Music, which according to The Glasshouse is “a hypnotic work that blurs the lines between speech and song, rhythm and pulse”.
Comments posted under a YouTube performance of the piece, composed in the early 1980s, include “moves me to tears”, “one of the finest tone poems ever composed” and “I think it’s a masterpiece”.
There are many more of that ilk.
The Glasshouse website introduction to Steve Reich at 90 states: “From concert hall to club culture – Steve Reich’s music pulses through it all.
“Minimalism. Rhythm. Repetition. The building blocks of modern sound. Without Steve Reich, music today would be unrecognisable.”
That’s a big call. I put it to Colin Currie that there will be a lot of people who haven’t heard of Steve Reich.
“That’s probably the position most people find themselves in but his music, whether they realise it or not, is very prevalent and its influence is strong.
“He’s one of those composers whose music you might think you don’t know but you probably do.”
That reference to minimalism makes Colin uncomfortable. It’s said of a lot of modern and 20th Century composers and not always in a flattering way.
“I despair of these labels myself. I find them very unhelpful and they’re often applied for want of a better expression. The minimalism thing is kind of reductive.
“For me this is the music with maximum impact and emotion. I’d say it’s maximalist music because it has all my senses operating at full throttle. It’s so emotional.”
Colin remembers the moments when he first became aware of the genius of Steve Reich.
“One of them was encountering the sheet music for Clapping Music which of course looks very strange because there are no instruments for the musicians to use.
“It’s a very unusual, clever and fascinating piece. It’s a very simple concept but challenging to perform and very rich in effect.
“The other clear memory I have is hearing Music for 18 Musicians. It’s a beautiful piece that has become very important to me. I knew when I first heard it that I’d love it for the rest of my life.
“That’s the piece we’re performing on Steve’s actual birthday and it’s not to be missed, I would say.”
Performing Music for 18 Musicians will be the Colin Currie Group which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary for the simple reason that it was formed to mark Steve Reich’s 70th birthday with a concert at the BBC Proms.
“That was our first concert but we’ve developed hugely since then,” says Colin.
“The first concert was very percussion-based whereas now we’re a fully fledged chamber ensemble with resident singers, pianists, string and wind players. We’re able to play pretty much any of Steve’s music, anything we want.
“We have a huge discography now and a record label and all sorts of ancillary projects and the musicians… well, I thought I was a Steve Reich fan until I met some of these people.
“They all have a huge love of his music and absolutely devour it in a concert. They’re spread around the UK but they’re a close-knit group.”
Steve Reich at 90 will see the Colin Currie Group performing at The Glasshouse for the first time.
The birthday boy won’t be there, in person anyway. These days, says Colin, Steve doesn’t travel far from his home in New York State, but he’s in regular contact with his Scottish champion and keenly follows everything that’s happening.
And there seems to have been no diminution of his creative powers.
“He seems to be in absolutely blistering form. We actually started this season with a Steve Reich world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival and that piece is now on tour, to Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg and on to Tokyo.
“That piece, In All Your Ways, sounds like a young person’s composition, full of vigour and wit and passion and the joy of music.”
An added attraction of Steve Reich at 90 is the involvement of guitarist Bryce Dessner, founder member of American rock band The National and another Reich fan.
He will perform with Colin and Royal Northern Sinfonia musicians in the Sage Two concert on Sunday afternoon (October 4) and then be in conversation with broadcaster Tom Service in a free event on the concourse.
You can find details of the whole Steve Reich at 90 programme on The Glasshouse website or call the box office on 0191 443 4661.