House music: Flora Willson's watching and listening highlights
Our critic enjoys a masterly, socially distanced first night of the Proms, a new series by Opera North made to listen as you walk and a striking Met performance by Lise DavidsenFor the past six months,...
View ArticleSteve Reich at 80 review – surging, pulsing energy
Barbican, LondonThe Britten Sinfonia and LSO celebrated the breadth of the composer’s groundbreaking career in two concerts across a weekend marking the Reich’s 80th. The three senior statesmen of...
View ArticleMaya Beiser: ‘I think I was born a nonconformist’
The boundary-crossing cellist on her kibbutz childhood, working with Steve Reich – and making high drama out of performanceThe New York-based cellist Maya Beiser grew up on a kibbutz in Galilee, Israel...
View ArticleLPO/Haslam review – faith, hope and pure minimalism
Royal Festival Hall, LondonThe London Philharmonic and Synergy Vocals made a strong, evocative impression with works by Steve Reich and Gavin BryarsLike belief itself, it seems that the Southbank...
View ArticleThe perfect score? How composers are taking pop festivals by storm
Hollywood soundtrack maestro Hans Zimmer was an unexpected smash at Coachella – but he’s not the first orchestral artist to cross over. Are classical musicians picking up where DJs left off?For most of...
View ArticleRain review – a brief shower is enough
Sadler’s Wells, LondonAnne Teresa de Keersmaeker weaves a compelling spell to Steve Reich’s music, but the resulting downpour is unrelentingRain was created in 2001 by the Belgian choreographer Anne...
View ArticleSteve Reich: Pulse/Quartet review – impressive, but better heard live
(Nonesuch)One of the great minimalists alongside Philip Glass and Terry Riley, Steve Reich remains heroically unafraid of the blank page. The 81-year-old may no longer rewrite the rules of modern...
View ArticleReich: Pulse/Quartet CD review – pitch perfect performances
International Contemporary Ensemble/Colin Currie Group(Nonesuch)Plus: Colin Currie Group - Steve Reich’s DrummingOver the past 40 years there have been many pieces by Steve Reich that could...
View ArticleAdventures in motion and pitches: how minimalism shook up classical music
Conductor Charles Hazlewood on the sounds that sparked a cultural revolution and redrew musical boundariesWhen I was an organ scholar at Oxford University in the late 80s the very idea that Kraftwerk...
View ArticleConcrete Dreams: new show celebrates Southbank's history of performance
Exclusive: exhibition looks back on London cultural centre’s legacy through 50 years of archive material An innovative new exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre gives visitors a performer’s...
View ArticleLSO/Järvi review – incoherent and self-regarding; even Reich's premiere fails
Barbican, LondonA programme of new works was consistent only in how it disappointed, with Järvi’s own overlong composition particularly tryingKristjan Järvi has become one of the London Symphony...
View ArticleThe week in classical: Akhnaten; Music for 18 Musicians; Britten Sinfonia;...
Coliseum; Royal Festival Hal; Wigmore Hall; Barbican, LondonMinimalism becomes spectacle in ENO’s entrancing Philip Glass revival, while many hands make hypnotically light work of Steve ReichTwo giants...
View ArticleHold on to your hard hats: New York's $475m Shed throws open its doors
The escalators need fixing and there’s no bar – but the show must go on, as stars from Ben Whishaw to Steve McQueen open NYC’s first major new arts venue for decadesBen Whishaw is on stage, stripped to...
View ArticleSandbox Percussion / Astrid review – virtuosos bring the fun of the fairground
Various venues, Cardiff and the Vale of GlamorganVale of Glamorgan festival celebrates its 50th with mesmerising performances on wine glasses, electronic inventions and a Dutch street organ named...
View ArticleThe best classical music works of the 21st century
Over the coming week, the Guardian will select the greatest culture since 2000, carefully compiled by critics and editors. We begin with a countdown of defining classical music compositions, from...
View ArticleReich/Richter review – two artists with the power to disrupt time and space
Barbican, LondonAn ever-shifting new composition by Steve Reich is set to a Rorschach-like new film by Gerhard Richter, with wonderfully disorientating, hypnotic resultsThis collaboration between the...
View ArticleThe week in classical: The Mask of Orpheus; Reich/Richter – review
Coliseum; Barbican, LondonHarrison Birtwistle’s monumental early opera is revived in an epic tussle between myth, meaning, the lustrous and the lurid. Plus, a sensory feast with Steve Reich and Gerhard...
View ArticleHome listening: Tchaikovsky, Babajanian and Debussy
An outstanding disc of piano trios from Gluzman, Moser and Sudbin, a world premiere Debussy recording from the Hallé, and Steve Reich at MoMA• Tchaikovsky disapproved of the piano trio, describing the...
View ArticleHouse music: Flora Willson's watching and listening highlights
Our critic enjoys a masterly, socially distanced first night of the Proms, a new series by Opera North made to listen as you walk and a striking Met performance by Lise DavidsenFor the past six months,...
View ArticleColin Currie Group review – joyous celebration of Steve Reich
Royal Festival Hall, LondonBuilt around a new piece by the 85-year-old composer unlike anything he has written before, this was an exhilarating occasionEarlier this month, Steve Reich celebrated his...
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