Werk: WTC 9/11

From Kurtág’s whispered fragments to Reich’s poignant memorialisation of 9/11, the Carducci Quartet deliver a programme of remarkable emotional range and intensity.

Five hours of repetitive music on a Sunday evening may be a hellish way for some to end the week; fortunately, I belong in the second category. A concert series named “Steve Reich Unlimited” therefore required no further selling points.

“I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music”, Steve Reich wrote in his 1968 essay Music as a Gradual Process. His music of the 1960s, from tape pieces such as It’s Gonna Rain to instrumental works like Piano Phase, employed phasing and looping techniques. These compositions are some of the first examples of both process music and downtown musical minimalism.