Prom 37 - 13.08.14: Steve Reich Prom, BBC Singers / Endymion

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wednesday, 13 August
10.15 p.m. – c. 11.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Steve Reich:
(a) It's Gonna Rain (first performance at The Proms)
(b) The Desert Music (chamber version; first performance at The Proms)

BBC Singers
David Hill, conductor
Endymion

Heaven and hell come together in a late night Prom which includes Steve Reich's extraordinary musical vision The Desert Music' which tells of the end of the world as imagined in the apocalypse of the post-nuclear age. Texts by William Carlos Williams are set for amplified voices, strings, synthesisers and a huge array of percussion; since its composition in 1983 it has become one of Reich's most iconic works. Paired with it, 'It's Gonna Rain' - an early experimental tape piece layering the recorded sound of a charismatic street preacher

[Nick Armstrong]

I shall be returning home after the early evening concert...

Not my cup of tea, this one. Who's going?

[pilamenon]

I shall be returning home after the early evening concert...

Not my cup of tea, this one. Who's going?

Not me, but I shall most certainly be listening. Reich's previous late nighter, three years ago, was my highlight of a very good season.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No comments at all?

Actually Colonel Danby mentioned it as a postscript to his comment on Prom 36.

[Bryn]

I had planned to attend but a persistent cough I have had for the past two months prevented me. I did listen, and thought the chamber version of 'the Desert Music' worked very well. How did it, and 'It"s Gonna Rain' come across in the Hall-

[I recall that when 'The Desert Music' was first performed at the Proms, Radio 3 prepared of for it with studio recording of the work with the same forces who performed at that Prom. Fat chance of something like that being offered now.]

[hmvman]

I've only just caught up with this prom. I was listening on headphones and there seemed to be something odd happening in It's Gonna Rain where the sound on the left channel kept coming and going. Was this an effect in the hall as well? Andrew McGregor in his intro said that the sound in the vast space of the hall would be "amazing". Was anyone there who can confirm whether it was "amazing". I detected some boos from the audience at the end of it.

I thought the performance and sound in The Desert Music was excellent though. Really enjoyable.