The performers rose superbly to a programme of hard-hitting protest works by Steve Reich on the theme of nuclear crisis
The programme for the late-night Steve ReichProm consisted of two big works of protest triggered by the nuclear crises of the late 20th century. It's Gonna Rain, dating from 1965, is a direct response to the Cuban missile crisis. The Desert Music, a big, choral piece composed in 1983, sets poetry by William Carlos Williams written in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both pieces equate repetition with engaged anger. Time has not diminished the impact of either.
His first acknowledged work, It's Gonna Rain was Reich's seminal experiment in phasing. Tapes of a San Francisco Pentecostal street preacher move in and out of simultaneity as endless reiterations of the words that give the piece its title create a tangible sense of unease at the thought of the black rain of fallout; later shouts of "hallelujah" add a mounting sense of apocalyptic dread. With the sound ricocheting around the vast spaces of the Albert Hall, where the lights were darkened to a creepy, penumbral blue, the effect was unnerving in the extreme.
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