Steve Reich at 90: The Four Sections

Colin Currie is at the helm; he’s joined by Bryce Dessner, yes, The National guitarist and a long-time Reich champion, plus our friends the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Some of Steve Reich’s most iconic works: Three Movements, Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards, Electric Counterpoint, and The Four Sections.

Steve Reich’s music is made of movement. Patterns shift, collide, and reform. The smallest rhythm grows into something vast. A single chord can shimmer like glass.

In Three Movements, the music constantly moves and turns. Repeating figures stretch and ripple until you lose track of where the downbeat lands. Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards is a kaleidoscope of colour. Chords slide past one another, glowing one moment, dissolving the next.

Electric Counterpoint, written for both pre-recorded and live guitars, turns repetition into a trance. With Bryce Dessner at its heart, expect a sound both mechanical and deeply human. Then The Four Sections pulls the whole orchestra into Reich’s pulsing universe – strings, winds, brass and percussion stacked into layers that vibrate with raw power.