The Scottish Chamber Orchestra programs its season to demonstrate its versatility, turning on a sixpence from an exquisite all-Mozart evening to this cool ‘New Dimensions’ strand, a DJ spinning up electronic sounds in the bar. Percussionist Colin Currie directed ‘Reich +’, a programme of music by living composers, with Joe Duddell and Helen Grime both present for this performance. Steve Reich will be 90 next year so is not travelling much now, but as Currie explained, he was aware of this performance and curious about the Duddell piece. Reich pulls a crowd, this performance a showcase for Currie and the different combinations of the SCO players required for each piece.
Written for string orchestra, with Currie playing marimba, vibraphone and crotales, Duddell’s abstract piece Snowblind was enthralling. With mallets in perpetual motion, Currie’s marimba blended with the strings, all long-bow chords to start but soloist and players developing bright sequencing passages, linked by the first violin, viola and cello, the double basses resonantly underpinning the mix. A slow movement explored vibraphone and crotales, their resonance cutting through the tapestry of densely interwoven strings, Currie’s approach keeping things light and airy. A final animated movement had loops and a jazzy feel, players fizzing with energy, especially when the violas launched into a crazy dance, Currie beating time briefly before returning to his whirl of mallets.
Grime’s River received its UK premiere, the piece first performed in Hamburg depicting the many characteristics of the River Elbe. Currie conducted this melodic emotional music, full of changing colours and ideas, opening with flutes and clarinets intertwining watery currents. More animation came from slightly rasping horns, percussion in a violent eddy, basses going down to their lowest extensions, contrabassoon adding pungent depth. Muted trumpets and chattering woodwind opened a calmer second movement, but layers of activity built, strings now in an uneasy flow, Currie more animated as the river approached the sea.
Reich’s music has developed in style, his two pieces in the second half still with his trademark rich rippling repetitions, but with more emphasis on melody and swift changes of harmony and rhythm, keeping the listener guessing. His 2016 Runner for 20 players in a mirrored ensemble of two pianos, strings, winds and percussion was enormous fun, moving continuously from sixteenths, eighths, quarters and back again. Antiphonal rhythmic loops with quirky interjections provided energy while a viola drone backed a conversation between two violins. Currie drove his players with enthusiasm, the pulse relentless, the players concentrating hard, one pianist animated, the other with a poker face as rhythms crossed and recrossed.
Reich’s three-movement Double Sextet from nine years earlier can be performed by six players against a recording of themselves, but thrillingly (and rarely) performed here with two sextets, again, mirrored on the platform. Interlocking pianos and vibraphones provided the rhythmic engine, slipping in and out of phase while the two violins and cellos played long notes, almost in chorale. Two flutes and clarinets added complexity, their blasts reminiscent of Different Trains written 20 years earlier. Reich’s music is fascinating and a challenging listen, like working out a rhythmic puzzle, mesmerising as the two sextets battled it out. The vibraphones were the visual stars, exchanging phrases, bouncing and borrowing notes, each deep in concentration, Louise Lewis Goodwin completely in the moment. The packed Queen’s Hall audience thundered their applause, Currie shaking every player by the hand and stylishly thumping the score.
