Brutalist surroundings: Bold Tendencies Car Park offered a different perspective on ReichMark Allan/BBCReview at a glance
In the 1960s, concert halls turned their back on music by American minimalism, so composers like Steve Reich sought out more congenial possibilities: art galleries, cinemas, vacant lofts. Today, concert halls around the world are queuing up to celebrate Reich’s imminent 80th birthday, but unorthodox locations can still provide different perspectives on his music, as this Prom demonstrated.
Peckham’s multi-storey car park is now an arts venue, its brutalist glamour making an appropriately urban setting for Reich’s music. The hiss of passing trains added atmosphere, although the opening work found Reich at his most bucolic. Vermont Counterpoint places a live flautist (Hannah Grayson) among multiple pre-recorded versions of herself.
At first the virtual flutes sounded like an echo, only gradually taking on their own identity. Working both with and against Grayson, they created a musical weave of dazzling richness.
The venue’s resident ensemble, the Multi-Story Orchestra, came into its own for Eight Lines, the strings setting up an almost folkish atmosphere while two pianos hinted at all kinds of other possibilities.
In the silence following the music’s end, the hum of the city reasserted itself, a delightful effect. Then, expanding still further, the orchestra weighed into Reich’s Music for a Large Ensemble, the Reichian equivalent of big band jazz, all pumping rhythms and breathy vocals. Throughout, Christopher Stark conducted with relaxed authority.
The BBC Proms (bbc.co.uk/proms) continue until Saturday
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