Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite Tour – The Reviews

 

Our Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite Tour has taken us across the country, performing concerts in London, Birmingham, Brighton and Glasgow. The tour has comprised of four main concerts, two schools matinee concerts in London and Birmingham, and a concert with NYOS Futures in Glasgow.

Here are the press reviews:

Tuesday 5 March |  Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London

‘What gave pleasure was seeing how thoroughly the borrowed material turned into Reich. It was a fine display of compositional mastery, which had nothing to do with remix culture, and everything to do with old-fashioned virtues of harmony and counterpoint.’
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph 

‘In its instrumentation and quasi-renaissance voice-leading, in which the slow-moving lines of the melodic instruments are scrunched together, the piece’s strongest resemblance was to 2008′s masterpiece Double Sextet, a superb performance of which followed.’
Guy Dammann, The Guardian

‘Radio Rewrite is a rich and impressive ensemble piece for non-rock instruments – performed here by musicians from the London Sinfonietta conducted by Brad Lubman. Those much-hyped allusions are fleeting (most noticeable are hints at the melodic loops of the Kid A track) and although the piece begins with sets of minimalist patterns, the journey through the five interlocking movements is varied, with periods of shadowy ambience.’
Laura Battle, Financial Times

‘It’s always a delight to watch the composer form one half of Clapping Music (the other pair of hands belonged to the Sinfonietta’s David Hockings). Electric Counterpoint, though sadly not played by Greenwood, was given a blinding performance by Mats Bergström. Though accompanied only by his own pre-recorded selves, the guitarist presented one of Reich’s most entrancing soundscapes as if he were the frontman of an incredibly cool, but sadly imaginary, supergroup.’
Neil Fisher, The Times (subscriber access only)

‘The peerless London Sinfonietta (directed with metronomic precision by Brad Lubman) lapped up their latest commission, which is sure to join Electric Counterpoint and Double Sextet (which we also heard) in the vanguard of their repertoire.’
Stephen Pritchard, The Observer

‘Last night’s rendition from Mats Bergstrom was a stunner itself. The technical complexities of this work’s balancing act – in which a guitarist must pre-record up to 12 separate lines of music, offering up a 13th strand for live consumption – were subsumed within a supremely sexy performance, in which the gentle ricocheting against the backing track built up its dense but legible groove with a ravishing beauty of tone and elegance of phrasing.’
Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Arts Desk (Classical Review)

Wednesday 6 March | Town Hall, Birmingham

‘…the song’s elliptical unfolding and oblique content are rather ironed out in music whose rhythmic drive lacks a distinctive harmonic presence, but not so the latter – where the song’s tonal ambiguity and tonal ambivalence has facilitated some of Reich’s most resourceful and evocative writing. The closing bars even evince a degree of rhetoric rare in his music – something which the London Sinfonietta players handled with deft assurance and not a little aplomb.’
Richard Whitehouse, Classical Source

Thursday 7 March | The Dome, Brighton

‘At the concert that evening, the Dome quickly filled up with an eager chatter of anticipation which was silenced by the opening piece Clapping Music, performed by the composer himself; the rhythmic complexity created between two pairs of hands clapping was simply stunning.’
Tom Sayer, We Love Brighton

‘It’s an enthralling composition, the ensemble’s vibraphones and two pianos driving the sharp, skittering strings during the fast parts, whilst the slow movements are imbued with a striking solemnity. Conductor Brad Lubman throws himself into the task, casting a few funky shapes as he leans into the musical headwind.’
Theo Hooper, The Big Issue

Saturday 9 March | Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

‘What a wonderful, energising and even moving modern musical occasion this was… this evening dedicated to the great American composer, who was present, was crowned by a superlative last two-thirds stamped by the Sinfonietta’s superb handling of Reich’s Double Sextet, as well as his new work, Radio Rewrite.’
Phil Miller, Herald Scotland

A selection of audience tweets:

#RadioRewrite wonderful wonderful new piece by @SteveReich @Ldn_Sinfonietta @southbankcentre
Philip Flood @Philip_Flood

Utterly brilliant. @Ldn_Sinfonietta playing @SteveReich at the @southbankcentre live on @BBCRadio3 #RadioRewrite
Jonathan Weller @weller_j

Overheard A level boy in @southbankcentre Steve Reich concert “one day will tell our grandchildren about this concert” @Ldn_Sinfonietta
Gayle Sutherland @makesmeexcited

Stunning performance of Steve Reich’s Electronic Counterpoint by Mats Bergstrom – highlight of the evening @Ldn_Sinfonietta @southbankcentre
Penny King @pennykingx

Mats Bergström’s rendition of Steve Reich’s Electronic Counterpoint tonight – quite something, as was @Ldn_Sinfonietta @southbankcentre
Bella Saer @bellasaer

Reich’s Radio Rewrite from London Sinfonietta at RFH tonight..trance-like triumph..and piece funded partly by online crowd sourcing. Bravo!
Peter Bazalgette @PeterBazalgette

@SteveReich @Ldn_Sinfonietta Last night was brilliant and radio rewrite was the highlight of the evening…bravo!
Rachel Hutchinson @Rach_L_Hutch

Excellent @Ldn_Sinfonietta schools matinee @THSHBirmingham #learnandjoinin George Dixon Academy were thrilled to meet Steve Reich afterwards
Katie Banks @Banksy9

Big thanks to @THSHBirmingham and @Ldn_Sinfonietta from staff and students from @ShirelandCA for the Steve Reich concert. Absolutely brill!
Nicholas Marr @NMarrSCA

Steve Reich and the @Ldn_Sinfonietta were inspirational last night. Every piece was golden. Can’t wait to hear Radio Rewrite again!
Jay Platt @jayplattuk

Stravinsky ‘Renard’, 10 February – Reviews

 

On Sunday 10 February we relived the world of the early 20th century Parisian salon, in a concert featuring the music of Erik Satie and Igor Stravinsky as part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise year-long festival. Award winning actress Harriet Walter assumed the role of the great patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, Winnaretta Singer, performing a script written by playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker describing Singer’s role in the creation of such music. The London Sinfonietta was also joined by highly acclaimed soprano Barbara Hannigan who sang Satie’s Socrate in the first half, before returning to the stage in the second to conduct Stravinsky’s comic chamber opera Renard.

Here are the press reviews of the performance: 

‘Particular credit must go to Barbara Hannigan for bringing such a programme to the stage, not only as a performer but also as an accomplished conductor and director. The nature of Singer’s patronage was sensitively communicated and allowed the concert to become a highly entertaining and educative experience for all.’
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Bachtrack

‘Socrate asked us to feel for a marble statue; Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Clarinet and Timothy Lines’s amazing artistry conjured instead a real human being, complex and jazzy, melancholic and dirty. I loved it.’
Geoff Brown, The Times (subscriber access only)

‘Two short works for string quartet – the Three Pieces of 1914 and the Concertino – are mere scraps from the master’s plate, but rigorous nonetheless, and the Three Pieces for Clarinet came across as brilliant miniatures in the hands of Timothy Lines.’
Richard Fairman, The Financial Times

‘The London Sinfonietta’s performance could not be faulted; the four vocal soloists proved fine advocates too. If the tenors perhaps captured greater attention, that is probably more a reflection of score than performance. Why do we not hear this work more often?’
Mark Berry, Opera Today

‘Barbara Hannigan gave a rendition of chaste eloquence, while any regret that the ensemble version was not used was quickly vanquished by Reinbert de Leeuw’s insight into a piano part which infers much more than it states; a memorable performance.’
Richard Whitehouse, Classical Source

‘Members of the Sinfonietta then contributed wonderfully abrasive performances of two of Stravinsky’s early miniaturised string quartets: the acerbic Three Pieces from 1914, and the less often heard Concertino of 1920; these were separated by the Three Pieces for Clarinet from the same period, dispatched with great elan by Timothy Lines.’
Andrew Clements, The Guardian

‘Hannigan conducted the Cock & Fox of Renard with precision and aplomb, which suggests that she will have a prolonged contribution to make in the performance of contemporary music after her singing career ends; hopefully, long from now.’
Peter Grahame Woolf, Musical Pointers 

Here are some reviews from Twitter:

Winnaretta Singer Harriet Walter Timberlake Wertenbaker @HanniganBarbara @Ldn_Sinfonietta @southbankcentre Eric Satie Igor Stravinsky Lovely
Michael Bramley

@Ldn_Sinfonietta incredible concert with Stravinsky and Satie. Bravo! #therestisnoise
Theo Vidgen

 

Webern and the Second Viennese School, 29 January – Reviews

Our Landmarks series continued on Tuesday 29 January with a concert featuring music from the composers of the Second Viennese School; Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg. Video projection was provided by Netia Jones / Lightmap and also starred conductor Baldur Brönnimann and soprano Sarah Gabriel.

This chance to hear virtually a whole concert of Webern proved something of a feast…this was a bracing evening. Economy sometimes yields rich rewards.
Nick Kimberley, The Evening Standard

It was an intensely beautiful and well-performed concert. Great visuals. Worth crossing the North Sea for. Thanks!
Klaus Ib Jørgensen on facebook

Excellent concert. It was great hearing this repertoire live, which not performed live enough. My favourite piece was the Symphony.
Tariq Khan on facebook

@Ldn_Sinfonietta Webern and Schoenberg played with warmth, intense expressivity, from Romantic tradition – a revelation, superb concert.
Piala Murray

Last night I saw @Ldn_Sinfonietta play a beautiful concert of Webern for £6.50. A profound experience made accessible to all.
James Opstad 

@Ldn_Sinfonietta Visuals helped, and the playing was excellent, as ever. Great, brave concert.
Emma Greenwood 

@Ldn_Sinfonietta A beautifully refreshing concert, and I enjoyed the video too
Tim Johnson 

Excellent 2nd Viennese programme from @Ldn_Sinfonietta & @hmmsarahgabriel, beautifully played & sung. AND we were given free postcards.
Ben Palmer

Clapping Music Workshop

Inspired by the London Sinfonietta’s on-going exploration of minimalism we are giving you the opportunity to participate in a Clapping Music Workshop. Led by our Principal Percussionist David Hockings, you can learn Steve Reich’s seminal piece and discover first-hand what makes this composition so thrilling; not only to watch, but to play. Steve Reich himself will perform the piece to kick off the London Sinfonietta’s concert at the Royal Festival Hall in March.

The workshop is free with a booking fee of £2.50 and is open to everyone – regardless of prior musical experience. Space is limited so make sure to book in advance.

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/207907

Five questions with cellist Oliver Coates

Oliver Coates

Cellist Oliver Coates has curated the 9pm late-night set for New Music Show 3 on Sunday 2 December and is also performing Alvin Lucier’s Music for cello and one or more amplified vases and Charlie Usher’s Yawl Ketch Schooner Brig.  Find out more about Olly below.

 

What was the first recording you bought?
Hats by The Blue Nile

Can you tell us a little bit about you?
I’m predominantly a performer on the cello and sometimes music programmer. I’ve made new music with lots of people, through improvising or in the studio: for example with Leo Abrahams on a recent album Crystals are Always Forming. I started playing the cello very young. I’m from London and have always been driven by discovering music from the past and the present. 

Who or what inspires you?
I’m inspired a lot by Robert Smithson. His ideas, writings and works inform what I try to do. Also recently I discovered the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin.

I’m inspired by some wonderful contemporary composers, featured in this event, such as Andrew Hamilton, David Fennessy, Charlie Usher, Larry Goves and Alvin Lucier. I enjoy looking into the right conditions for what Lucier calls “concentrated listening”, which some people might think of as meditative. I love when the form of a piece keeps me guessing.

I am inspired by old Scottish and Norweigian folk songs, as sung by Amy Kate Riach, whom I am recording for an album project at the moment.

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?
Working with Netia Jones and David Sheppard and Amy Kate Riach on The Seafarer at Southbank Centre. It was an installation that took place in a series of dark corridors and boiler rooms and utility areas underneath Royal Festival Hall. I recorded music by Messiaen as the soundtrack, and the Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer was painted in a long line along the walls, dimly lit. We lived down there for two weeks while building it and it became my life.

My other favourite project was Everlasting Light at Sizewell Beach in June 2011. It was conceived and designed by Netia Jones. It was the most beautiful artistic experience I’ve ever had, and I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing those particular images projected onto the face of the nuclear reactor to the sound of Ligeti’s choral music.

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…
Music for People who like Art by Andrew Hamilton

Born Free by M.I.A.

Three Ravens (Scottish traditional folk song, sung by Ewan MacColl)

 

Five questions with composer David Fennessy

The UK premiere of David Fennessy’s 13 Factories takes place in the third set (7.30pm) of Sunday’s New Music Show 3. We caught up with David to find out a bit more about the influences and inspirations that have led him to this point.

What was the first recording you bought?
Madness – Michael Caine. That single is still in my mum’s house somewhere…

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you start in composing?
I came to ‘Classical’ music fairly late. I played guitar in bands at school but it had got to the stage where I was writing 20-minute long instrumental epics, so perhaps the writing was already on the wall by then that I was destined to be a composer. I started to take lessons in Classical guitar from a guy I saw busking on Grafton Street in Dublin and a couple of years later I started at the College of Music in Dublin. That was the first time I’d seen an orchestra or a string quartet in the flesh; it completely blew me away. When I started to study there I naively thought that all musicians composed their own music too so couldn’t believe that the world was split into composers and performers – something which still puzzles me today.

Who or what inspires you?
Here’s a great quote from James Joyce, which neatly encapsulates how I feel about inspiration: “Chance furnishes me with what I need. I’m like a man who stumbles along; my foot strikes something. I bend over and it is exactly what I need.”

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?
In 2006/ 2007 I spent a year at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt. It changed everything for me.

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…
A 1906 gramophone recording of Bella Figlia dell’amore by Verdi sung by Enrico Caruso, one from 1908, one from 1905…

I’ve just finished a piece called Caruso for Ensemble Klang in Holland that uses extensive samples of his voice. Honestly, I’m obsessive in these things and I’ve listened to almost nothing but recordings of Caruso for the last 2 months, so this covers all my top 3 most listened to pieces of music!!

Five questions with composer Andrew Hamilton

Andrew Hamilton

Composer Andrew Hamilton will be featuring in the first set at 4.30pm on Sunday 2 December at New Music Show 3. Find out more about Andrew and what inspires him below. And to give you a flavour for what to expect on the 2nd, you can listen to one of his pieces, Music for people who lose people here 

What was the first recording you bought?

Yehudi Menuhin came to Dublin when I was 10 and my Dad brought me to hear him play Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. I fell in love with the piece and saved up and got the LP with Menuhin conducted by Klemperer.  I got to know a lot of music from slow Klemperer LPs.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you start in composing?
I was a child obsessed by singing everything and then demanded to learn the violin at 7. As soon as I could play without people crying in pain I was making up melodies and started writing them down at the age of 10. It just seemed perfectly normal to write ideas down.

Who or what inspires you?
In no particular order:

Thomas Bernhard, Gerald Barry, Handel, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Kevin Volans, Agnes Martin, Flann O’Brien, Louis Andriessen, Ad Reinhardt, Jacques Tati, Beckett, Jasper Johns, Stravinsky, Robert Walser, Mondrian, David Foster Wallace.

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?
This is hard to answer but the main thing that makes a highlight is working with committed and kind musicians.

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…
I listen constantly to the first album made by the Irish musician Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill in 1975 called Tríona.

Stravinsky’s violin concerto which I am only starting to understand now.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – I went and saw this four times while living in Berlin, it all got a bit out of hand but I am somehow gripped by it.

Five questions with composer Juliana Hodkinson

 

Juliana Hodkinson’s Stills is featuring in the forthcoming one day festival New Music Show 3 on Sunday 2 December at Southbank Centre. Find out more about Juliana and her work below. 

 

Juliana Hodkinson

 

What was the first recording you bought?
A tape cassette of Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Legends and Swan of Tuonela – after hearing the Legends in Mrs. Parsons’ school music lesson.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you start in composing?
Originally, I guess it was a desire for more pocket money. There was a competition where you could win £50. I think I got second prize, which must have been £25. My violin teacher and his wife played in my piece, for piano and string quartet. Devon County Council ran residential youth-orchestra courses where composition was one of the afternoon activities, so I got my first taste there. The council also employed a composer-in-residence, Christopher Williams, who gave me lessons and pointed me towards Renaissance madrigals, Balinese music and contemporary music. I would never have formulated the idea of composing music if it had not been for these local frameworks, which gave me the opportunity to work with professional musicians on my ideas and get professional feedback, criticism and encouragement. 

 

Who or what inspires you?
That’s an endless list, because it’s always changing. Working together with musicians is a key source of inspiration for each piece in the development process. And the work of other artists; works in other media often provide me with metaphors for compositional concepts or processes that I can then put into sound. I’ve spent the last 14 years chewing over two video pieces I saw in Belgium by David Claerbout. But Varèse’ Ionisation repeatedly packs an immediate punch.

 

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?
That would be All the time, an instrumental theatre production I developed in 2001. It was an extreme meeting between the most reduced artistic material I had ever worked with before, and the most extensive/intensive rehearsal and production process. Together with 4 musicians and a theatre production crew, we spent weeks putting soooo much effort into lighting matches, dropping feathers, splitting near-silent tones, unpacking a clavichord in the dark, tuning, tuning and re-tuning ancient instruments… I was exhausted, I had never spent so many hours in a black-box space before, and my music was getting quieter and more sparse, day by day. By the time the journalists came to interview me for the pre-show PR, I hardly had a score left to put on the coffee-table. It was a low point and a high point at the same time. The delicate and pain-staking production of All the time was the moment I learnt how much artifice and rehearsal is required for the simplest expressions, and how rewarding it is to bring the integration of sound and light under control in the same gesture. The next main production I did after that was a huge, loud orchestral electro-acoustic video extravaganza …

 

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…
1. Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water (coming from my son’s bedroom)

2. Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf (a musical toy that hangs over my daughter’s cot)

3. And everything in between: all kinds of radical contemporary music and sound art that I’m researching for my curatorship of Spor Festival in Denmark next May – so I can’t tell you about it, as we want the programme to be A Surprise.

Principal player focus: Jonathan Morton

The start of the Music Programme 2012/13 sees a new Principal player join the London Sinfonietta.   Jonathan Morton, who is also currently Artistic Director and Leader of the Scottish Ensemble, will be taking up the position of Principal player violin 1.  Jonathan has performed with us for many years and we’re delighted to welcome him to the ensemble. We asked him a few questions to get the inside track…

Violinist Jonathan Morton

Tell us a little about yourself.  What projects have you been involved with recently?\

I recently performed at Orchestra in a Field, an outdoor festival in Glastonbury. I played in the Scrapheap Orchestra, on a violin mostly made with plastic waste pipe, nails, and a fork.  I’ve also been having fun performing Schubert’s Trout Quintet and a new quintet by Alasdair Spratt with the wonderful pianist Alasdair Beatson & the Scottish Ensemble.

What was the first recording you bought?

 Probably some cheesy Belgian pop (I grew up near Brussels).

When did you realise you wanted a career in music?

Very late actually. I’m not very good with career strategies.

Although you’ve just become a London Sinfonietta Principal player you’ve performed with us many times before.  Do you have favourite London Sinfonietta experience to date?

So many to choose from… I’d have to pick one of my first experiences with tthe London Sinfonietta, which was a recording of Oliver Knussen’s two operas Where the Wild Things Are & Higglety Pigglety Pop!. I had recently left music college, and to find myself at Abbey Road studios playing this extraordinary music under the composer’s baton was overwhelming. And I’ll never forget a performance of Louis Andriessen’s medieval metal masterpiece De Snelheid at Lincoln Centre in NYC.  (Co-incidentally, Jonathan’s first performance as Principal violin 1 will be in our upcoming BBC Proms performance, when we’ll be re-visiting De Snelheid).

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to do in a musical work?

Playing the mandolin in Hans Werner Henze’s  ‘Voices’.

What piece of music brings a smile to your face when you see it on your music stand?

Anything by Mozart.

Who or what inspires you?

The landscapes, sea and skies of Suffolk, where I have recently moved to.

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…

I listen to music mainly in the car, where our two children have complete artistic control over what’s played. The three most requested tracks are Stick Stock by Emily Portman, Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams and In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.  My latest album purchase is Ground of its own by Sam Lee. You should definitely listen to it.

Jonathan’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be on Tuesday 14 August at the Royal Albert Hall when we’ll be performing with the London Sinfonietta as part of the BBC Proms. Click here to find out more.

Poetry and music does not mix easily… that is perhaps what is attractive about the union…

The London Sinfonietta’s Blue Touch Paper programme nurtures and promotes the next generation of composers and interdisciplinary collaborators by providing the context and space to develop new work. On Wednesday 16 May collaborative works currently being developed by 3 groups of composers and artists on the programme will be showcased in a works-in-progress preview event at Village Underground, Shoreditch.

Composer Philip Venables and poet Steven J Fowler’s work The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, explores the violence, sanctioned by society, that is boxing.  Steven writes…

Tragedy is a subject best approached indirectly, certainly one runs immense risks in writing tragic poetry in 2012. We opened ourselves up to that contingency when we decided to take on the narrative that we did. When first Philip and I agreed, at my gentle urging, to formulate a piece about the boxer Miguel Cotto, he had yet to rematch the man who beaten him into a state of near death using (discovered posthumously) hand bandages loaded with plaster of paris. It is boxing’s own particular brand of madness that such a rematch with this man, Antonio Margarito, was allowed to happen at all. All to our advantage. The point being our work together was born of possibility, of chance, of contingency and we welcomed that into our process and our collaboration. Poetry and music does not mix easily, nor gently, and that is perhaps what is attractive about the union. And beyond that, when first scores were being drawn, staging arranged, poetry mooted we did not even know whether the piece would be a story of tragedy or of revenge.

As Philip has trusted me into the world of boxing (and poetry) so I have trusted him to shape the narrative beyond the narrative, and therein lies the key to our work being successful, that it might utilise notions apparent in the subject to embody something original, and powerful, perhaps even aggressively so. And as I have suggested, it has always been my experience that music doesn’t synthesis easily with poetry – it requires innovation, intention and a fair measure of sacrifice. So I believe our piece, as it nears its beginning (which can feel like an end, strangely, for the preview show) has become defined by its rough edges and at its core, will retain something of the volatility of both our subject and our method. I have been asked already if our piece might allow those who don’t appreciate boxing to enter into my perception, and thus appreciation of the sport … I can only say I feel it’s not for me to say, nor has it become a concern of ours. Boxing is a repository for a palpable sense of being, of alive-ness, whether it is enjoyed or not. And I would venture the same goes for good music and good poetry. If our piece comes close to achieving the same sensation, we will be exceedingly happy.

Steven J Fowler, poet, The Revenge of Miguel Cotto