Conductor Charles Hazlewood on the sounds that sparked a cultural revolution and redrew musical boundaries
When I was an organ scholar at Oxford University in the late 80s the very idea that Kraftwerk and Japan were as important to me as Mozart and Poulenc incited scorn from my tutors. I was warned that I would never be taken seriously as a musician if I didn’t give up my passion for rock’n’roll. But no matter how stern the warning to stifle my dark side, I continued to love music of all genres. I still do.
So imagine my excitement when I discovered that classical music had birthed its own dark side, known as minimalism. Here was a whole new genre that unashamedly combined the rigours of classical music with the rebel spirit of rock’n’roll. Not only did it flout convention, it was seriously adventurous. Here was the musical equivalent of space exploration. Minimalists weren’t just defying convention, they sought to reimagine what music is.
At the first performance of Reich’s Four Organs in Carnegie Hall, one audience member shouted: 'I confess!'
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