Steve Reich: Different Trains – signal/noise ensemble

Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and pre-recorded soundtrack written by Steve Reich in 1988.

About this Event

The piece emerged from Reich’s childhood memories of travelling on trains between New York and Los Angeles. These merge with reflections on his Jewish identity: had he been on a train in Europe at the same time, in the late 1930s and 1940s, the destination may have been very different.

We launch the UNESCO Week of Sound with this piece since it brings to life sound’s power to evoke memory and to trigger imagination. Sound recordings of voices and trains are picked apart and used to find musical shapes, forms and rhythms. These are revealed by the string quartet, who convert recorded sound into musical energy and pace. With its powerful incorporation of testimony from Holocaust survivors, Different trains also links to Thursday’s concert of music from places of detention.

Four exceptional musicians have come together tonight to perform this work. Each is interested in collective experience and teamwork involved in making this complex piece come together. Like most of Reich’s pieces, Different Trains requires discipline, feverish counting, focus and accuracy.

• Jeff Moore – Violin
  
  
• Ariane Todes – Violin
  
  
• Charles Mutter – Viola
  
  
• Dee Isaacs – Cello

Get Tickets