Reverberations: The influence of Steve Reich
Barbican / LSO St Luke’s, London
08/05/2011
 
Reverberations is a two day celebration of the American composer Steve Reich – a pioneer of minimalist music who has influenced hip-hop, post-rock, and everything in between. At these rare events where the often-opposing worlds of popular and classical music collide, what is clear is that the boundaries between them are unclear – today we find rock bands collaborating with orchestras, whilst elsewhere classically trained composers seek inspiration from electronic artists.
 
Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson represents perfectly this collision of genres. In an achingly beautiful morning performance he combines piano, strings, and electronics to the backdrop of a blue, monochrome video installation that presents the world in ultra-splodge-like-low-resolution. After lunch, Düsseldorf-based Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) is joined by Finnish percussionist Samuli Kosminen from the band Múm. In their highly rhythmic set, Hauschka hammers at his prepared-piano like a woodpecker whilst Kosminen tinkles with what look more like children’s toys than serious instruments.
 
Fast forward to the evening, and Steve Reich himself takes to the stage to perform his famous ‘Clapping Music’ – a fiendishly simple yet tricky-to-play piece that many may remember being taught at school. Fittingly it gets a rapturous applause and we can’t help but giggle at the fact that we are clapping, well, at people clapping. Later on, and to much disappointment, Owen Pallett (arranger extraordinaire for Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear) and his band overpower and rush the Britten Sinfonia accompanying them. But well beyond midnight, Max Richter plays the festival out on a high with his moving, cinematic set. All in all a superb homage to a truly groundbreaking musician.
 
David Tshulak