No music for ego trips

The first encounter between Ensemble Modern and Steve Reich goes back to 1995: together with the London Sinfonietta and Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern had commissioned ›City Life‹. Reich attended and followed the rehearsal process in minute detail. Since 1966, he had developed a specific style of composing and performing with his ensemble ›Steve Reich and Musicians‹, and he had initial reservations regarding other performing ensembles. He feared that classically trained musicians would display a certain stiffness, robbing his pulsating music of its liveliness. ›City Life‹, however, changed everything: in 2004, he wrote that Ensemble Modern had intuitively found the exact sound he had been hoping for – with an energy reminiscent of jazz or pop music. Thus, the idea of performing ›Music for 18 Musicians‹ as well came about, which only his own ensemble had played until that time, using rudimentary verbal notes since no score had ever been created. Only a transcript of the 1976 recording enabled the score to be written out. Therefore, Ensemble Modern was able to learn the work together with Reich, two of his percussionists and the conductor Brad Lubman as a supervisor. Reich considered this process a passing of the baton: Ensemble Modern became the first ensemble apart from his own to perform ›Music for 18 Musicians‹. The piece is compelling in its sophisticated instrumentation, resembling a fragile object which might explode at any time: this is no music for ego trips. Instead, the magic happens when all the performers silently agree to dive into the same groove and sonic space. Then the piece begins to soar, unfolding its hypnotic power. With this concert at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Ensemble Modern celebrates Steve Reich’s 90th birthday – and an artistic partnership and friendship that goes back decades.