Following the Barbican and Carnegie Hall celebrations of Steve Reich's latest works early next year, some of his most iconic works will be featured in the weeklong Sacrum Profanum festival taking place in Kraków, Poland, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In an introductory video seen here, Reich describes Sacrum Profanum as "one of the best new-music festivals in the world." Among the festival performers are Jonny Greenwood, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and Bang on a Can.
As noted late last week in the Nonesuch Journal, Steve Reich's music will be the focus of two major presentations, with Carnegie Hall's Music of Steve Reich concert in April and the Barbican's two-day Reverberations festival in May featuring some of the composer's newest works. There's more to come later in 2011, as Reich's 75th birthday approaches in October, when the Sacrum Profanum festival in Kraków, Poland, takes place on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, offering a retrospective of some of the composer's most iconic works, as well as those featured on his latest Nonesuch release, Double Sextet and 2x5.
The festival, which Reich describes as "one of the best new-music festivals in the world," begins on Sunday, September 11, 2011, with an Opening Night concert featuring three works by Reich—Daniel Variations, Electric Counterpoint, and Music for 18 Musicians—paired with a new work by Polish composer Paweł Mykietyn. Reich will perform in the concert, as will Ensemble Modern, and special guest Jonny Greenwood, who will perform Electric Counterpoint, a piece originally written for Pat Metheny. The concert will be held in the Electrolytic Tinning Plant of ArcelorMittal Poland in Kraków.
The following day includes two concerts. In the first, Alarm Will Sound will perform three works by John Adams—Chamber Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and Son of Chamber Symphony, which Adams wrote for the group—along with a new piece by Polish composer Aleksandra Gryka, at the Museum of Urban Engineering. Later that evening at the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Ensemble Modern returns to perform the first of two of Steve Reich's collaborations with video artist Beryl Korot featured in the festival: Three Tales, their cautionary multimedia triptych about 20th-century technological advances.
On Tuesday, following a program focused on the work of David Lang by the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern performs another all-Reich program at the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre: Tehillim and Different Trains, in which Reich evokes his American childhood during World War II while also addressing the Holocaust.
On Wednesday, following a program dedicated to the work of Julia Wolfe by Asko | Schönberg, the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre wil host another all-Reich program, this time with the London Sinfonietta performing Eight Lines, Triple Quartet, and City Life.
Thursdays concerts begin with Terry Riley's minimalist classic In C, after which Bang on a Can All-Stars perform the evening's all-Reich program at Łaźnia Nowa. In addition to earlier works New York Counterpoint, Video Phase, and Clapping Music, the group will perform the two works paired on Reich's latest Nonesuch release, Pulitzer Prize winner Double Sextet and 2x5, the latter of which Bang on a Can premiered last year at the Manchester International Festival and performed on the album. The group will perform the piece on both the Barbican and Carnegie Hall Reich celebrations earlier in 2011.
The Sacrum Profanum closes with two nights' performances of The Cave, Reich and Korot's video opera about the Arab-Israeli conflict, which was premiered in 1993.
For more information on the festival, visit sacrumprofanum.com. You can watch a brief introductory video from the composer, in which he previews the week's program, below. To pick up a copy of any of the albums in the Steve Reich Nonesuch catalog, visit the Nonesuch Store.
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