Reich, Wallin & Bartók / Edinburgh International Festival
“The concert ended with Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, a performance of remarkable refinement, the slow movement ideally suited to the intimacy of the venue and the finale Bela Bartok at his most playful.”
Herald, August 2015
“Paving the way with his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Bartok’s scoring has been taken a step further by Steve Reich and his Quartet for Two Vibraphones and Two Pianos. A complex monster of a piece, it was brilliantly put together in a tight-knit performance by Currie with fellow percussionist Sam Walton and piano duo of Simon Crawford-Phillips and Philip Moore. Visually as well as aurally striking, balance between each pair of instruments was exactingly achieved, as was a steady pulse to the music’s irregular rhythmic patterns.
A range of sticks with different heads, some soft, others harder-hitting, was exploited to the full by Currie in Rolf Wallin’s Realismos Mágicos for solo marimba, whether for mysterious low rumbly notes or spikier agitation across its eleven movements.”
Scotsman, August 2015