Music by Steve Reich

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s concert in the Metropolis series was advertised as a rare, intimate performance and conversation experience with one of America’s greatest living composers. ‘The erudite, witty and frank Steve Reich will be joined by members of eighth blackbird for a bracing discussion as a prelude to an all-Reich concert,’ promised the adjective-driven media release. And so it was, with the program comprising Steve Reich’s Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming – Part One and Different Trains. I am almost at a loss as to how to review this unique concert, but I will say at the outset that it was a rare, five-star event. How often does an audience get the chance to be immersed in a concert devoted to a contemporary composer, with that composer in the house? How often would the Melbourne Recital Centre have a full house for such a concert? Yet last night it did – and the audience defied all stereotypes, with concertgoers of most age groups excited before the concert started and enthusiastic as it progressed. The MSO’s Alison McQueen assures me this is typical of Metropolis audiences, which is why this series is so important to the future of fine music in this city. This one began sensationally, as two artists made their way to the stage, one of them composer and artistic director of Speak Percussion, Eugene Ughetti. The other (identified by his ubiquitous cap) was Steve Reich himself. There were no words of greeting as he and Ughetti quickly established the hand-clapping sound of Clapping Music, built on patterns of 12 but with a complex rhythm that made this a piece of infinite variety. Reich has specified that the room should allow for “a surrounding sensation of a series of variations of two different patterns with their downbeats coinciding”. Here, the brilliant acoustics of the MRC’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall came into their own, and again justified the building of such a fine performance space. Similarly, the hall gave a wonderful resonance to Vermont Counterpoint in which flautist Tim Munro from the visiting American eighth blackbird played flutes and piccolo against a 10-part recording of similar instruments. That his was only one-eleventh of the polyphony this created should not detract from Munro’s performance as he moved seamlessly between instruments. Speak Percussion lived up to its name as Ughetti led eight drummers through an intricate, almost hypnotic exploration of rhythm. Without scores in front of them the musicians looked to each other for fine points of dynamics and pace, and kept an extraordinary synchronicity throughout. Finally, it was Different Trains, performed by a string quartet from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to a recorded soundtrack featuring sound effects, voices and music played by the Kronos Quartet. The massive concept embraces far more than instruments approximating the sounds of trains (although that was cleverly done). There are also voices, with some words reinforcing the theme and spirit of the movements: America – Before the War, Europe –During the War, and After the War. For me, it was strongly reminiscent of Reich’s later work, WTC 9/11, also using the Kronos Quartet with recorded voices. This technique is identifiably Reich’s, and has more than once been called the music of our age. I did not stay for the conversation, although Reich is said to be an urbane and cogent interpreter of his own music. It was enough to have heard his voice through this well-executed program, and to let the percussion – well, speak. Rating: 5 stars out of 5 Music by Steve Reich Melbourne Recital Centre April 30