En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Synergy Vocals

C’est une légende vivante qui s'invite à la fondation Louis Vuitton ce weekend : le compositeur Steve Reich en personne, pionnier des courants de la musique minimaliste et de la musique répétitive.

Chorégraphié en 2001 par la chorégraphe flamande Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Rain est une exploration scientifique de l’articulation entre musique et danse qui s’inscrit dans la continuité des ses premiers travaux. La pièce est présentée par le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris cet automne.

Before a searing performance of Shostakovich's Thirteenth from Ryan Bancroft and his Welsh forces, Benjamin Grosvenor delivers a terrific performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. 

Lovingly detailed accounts of music dear to the heart of the late master of ceremonies at the Proms.

Jacob’s Ladder receives its world premiere, sandwiches by two staples of the 19th-century Romantic repertoire. 

Nacho de Paz, Synergy Vocals y varios músicos de la Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real estrenan en las naves de Matadero Three Tales de Steve Reich y Beryl Korot con notable éxito.

Exemplary performances of classic works by the American minimalist from the London Sinfonietta 

Steve Reich und Beryl Korot flechten Musik, Wort und Bild zu einem dichten Erlebnis, wirkungsvoll vermittelt von Synergy Vocals und Ensemble Modern.

From the ultimate process piece, to a recent video-opera, this central concert of the Barbican's 'Steve Reich at 80' weekend reminded us what the fuss has been all about.

Steve Reich turned 80 last month, and New Yorkers finally pencilled him, between the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and the daunting presidential election, for big birthday bash at Carnegie Hall.

A mesmerising all-Reich programme by the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals produced lustrous textures and sonorous tones, culminating in the astonishing Music for 18 Musicians.

Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals showcase seminal works by Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood (1973), Quartet (2013), & Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76)

In addition to the “Mickey Pick-Slate” chants, the score of Anthracite Fields incorporates the banging of a can, the spinning of bicycle wheels, whistling, and shouting.

The Southbank’s The Rest is Noise continues to draw the crowds, although the promise of Steve Reich himself can’t have made this concert too hard to sell. Reich’s own contribution to this evening, the culmination of a weekend of music and events entitled “Superpower”, was limited to some clapping and letting go of a microphone.

If a single word can express disappointment without surprise, it would capture my feeling upon surveying the seats before this concert of 20th-century music at the Usher Hall. My heart went out to the musicians. However, upon seeing Ilan Volkov’s happy and positive demeanour and hearing the first notes, all such negativity dissolved, never to return.

Before last night I had reserved judgement on John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music (1982), which I knew from CD but hadn’t previously heard live. It was an effect-piece, I thought, so while it had left me a little cold in recorded form, I was open to the possibility that this enormous, ecstatic major-key pile-up would blow me away in the concert hall.

The Kings Place programme booklet for Since it was the Day of Preparation… folds like a thin papery triptych. Yet, the composer’s photograph does not occupy the central panel. Indeed, gushing verbal bombast, a feature all too common in performances of new music, was pleasantly absent.

At one extreme of musical preparation, early music specialists rely on research to ensure authentic performance of music by composers long dead. At the other, composers writing today might well be acquainted with the performers and consult them on the technical possibility of some passages and attend rehearsals.

Steve Reich has been a Barbican mainstay of 2011. In his 75th birthday year, the composer’s significant influence on contemporary classical music was honoured with the Reverberations Festival in May.

The gentle sound of a kettle coming to the boil was the intriguing start to the UK premiere of Louis Andriessen’s work for singer, ensemble and film, Anaïs Nin. The peeling and eating of a banana gave rather more of a clue as to what was to come, in a concert that carried the warning “This concert contains explicit content and language and is recommended for ages 16 and over”.