(Colin Currie Group perform Steve Reich’s Quartet)

Steve Reich’s ninetieth anniversary year would not be complete without a world premiere. Or two, as was the case in this evening’s all-Reich concert at Usher Hall, Edinburgh. There again, a Reich premiere would not be complete without the Colin Curry Group either, with Quartet (also on the programme) and Traveler’s Prayer previous co-commissions for Currie’s group.

Forming part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, these two new compositions – Two Pianos and the stirring, spectacular In All Your Ways – appeared in either half of the program. More on that later.

The evening began with Clapping Music, probably Reich’s most performed piece. Currie performed the piece on several occasions with Reich himself and recently told me that the experience was, in his words: ‘Completely surreal, yet not at all nerve-wrecking. Reich was a great person to take to the stage with, and I miss that interaction. I’m so glad I had that opportunity to perform with him.’ Certainly, fellow percussionist Owen Gunnell acquitted himself to the task at the Usher Hall’s reverberant acoustics, the duet executing the piece’s gradually shifting patterns with relaxed and consummate ease.

This was followed by the first of two premieres. Two Pianos was originally composed by Reich in 2020, but for various reasons (the Pandemic amongst them) was held back until this year. Chorale-like in scope, the stately, slow-moving four-minute work revolved around a series of imposing harmonic pillars whose true significance was only completely revealed during a full and final statement at the end.

Thereafter, the program took an upturn in energy and pace. The opening movement of the Radiohead-inspired Radio Rewrite for ensemble gained much from the way in which Curry – now conducting – managed to bind together its complex movable parts, his ensemble always alert to the music’s sudden shifts and tricky corners. The performance also managed to set the music’s propulsive qualities very effectively against more plangent moments heard during the second and fourth sections, while the closing movement rocked and rolled with more swagger and conviction than the Bon Jovi concert taking place down the road at the Murrayfield Stadium the same evening.

Double Sextet provided a virtuosic end to the first half, with the first movement surging out of the blocks like a tearaway train and the third movement forever straining at the leash.

The second half began much as the first had ended, this time with Quartet, pianists Philip Moore and Siwan Rhys and percussionists Currie and Gunnell locked tightly together throughout, sculpting the music’s peaks and troughs with power, accuracy, and precision.

And so, to the evening’s highlight: Reich’s new work In All Your Ways. Scored for three sets of quartets (comprising woodwinds, percussion and strings), plus two pianos, the title is taken from Proverbs 3:6: ‘In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.’

About as far removed from the composer’s recent Traveler’s Prayer as one could imagine, In All Your Ways was a revelation: Reich rethought and rewrought. Teeming with cascades of rising and falling lines that followed each other with almost breathless virtuosity and abandon, In All your Ways was far more linear in scope than what we have come to expect from this composer. Reich will often combine lines and layers vertically rather than horizontally. Once a rhythmic pattern and harmonic foundation is stated, he will then present and develop the material by gradually introducing interlocking lines and close canons above them. Reich’s musical conception is often therefore ‘simultaneous’ rather than ‘successive’, with patterns appearing as subdivisions of the beat.

In All Your Ways appears to turn that idea on its head. These rhythmic subdivisions result in ever-shifting and ever-changing kaleidoscopic colours – a dizzying sequence of melodic spirals. Alongside these uplifting passages, a middle section provided a tender lyrical moment that seemed to draw on the melodic character of Reich’s opera The Cave. The work also ended with a beautiful moment where time appeared to stand still. Reich has noted that In All Your Ways is based on four rhythmic sections (sixteenths, eighths, quarters, triplets) alongside four harmonic areas, but the impression was of something more fluid, integrated, and organic. One cannot draw too many conclusions from one performance, of course, but In All Your Ways is a powerhouse of a piece that ranks alongside some of the composer’s other late masterpieces, such as Runner and Reich/Richter.

If you missed the premiere, Colin Currie Group will also be performing In All Your Ways at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on September 19; Barbican, London on October 28; Philharmonie, Paris on November 22; and Großer Saal, Hamburg on December 4; with Canadian and US premieres featuring Soundstreams Canada and Ensemble Signal, Bang on a Can All-Stars and Brad Lubman, taking place on October 6 & 22 respectively. Not to be missed.