The Desert Music

The Desert Music

Where Poetry and Menace Meet
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This masterpiece is rarely heard live. But thanks to the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Het Muziek, HIIIT, New European Ensemble, and Ensemble Klang, a full, joint performance of this monumental cantata for choir and orchestra will take place. The Desert Music, by the celebrated Steve Reich, is an impressive work that unites poetry and urgency. The title and lyrics are drawn from the writer William Carlos Williams, whose words Reich brought together into one vast, breathing soundscape.

Behind that landscape lies a deeper layer: Reich deliberately chose texts from the period following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a time when 'the bomb' cast a long shadow over the world. This tension is audible in the music: humanity is capable of realizing its desires, yet simultaneously faces a choice that strikes at the heart of the conscience. The desert of the title remains ambiguous: is it a physical place, an inner void, or a vision of the future?

  • Netherlands Chamber Choir
  • Het Muziek
  • HIIIT
  • Ensemble Klang
  • New European Ensemble
  • Joost Geevers
    conductor

Program

Steve Reich The Desert Music

Program

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