Steve Reich: The Sextets
Sextet; Double Sextet; Six Marimbas; Dance Patterns
Colin Currie Group
Colin Currie Records CCR0009
https://www.colincurriegroup.com/

Steve Reich turns ninety in October, and the Colin Currie Group — quite simply the finest exponent of his music on the planet — has marked the occasion with a recording that ranks among the most compelling releases in the contemporary canon. Coinciding with the ensemble's own twentieth anniversary, The Sextets brings together four works united by the elegant symmetry of sextet forces, and the result is a disc of quite exceptional distinction.

Sextet, spread across five movements, opens the disc with characteristic rhythmic invention, its interlocking patterns and harmonic clarity drawing the listener immediately into Reich's distinctive sound world. The Colin Currie Group finds the pulse of this music with absolute conviction; the ensemble's collective brilliance ensures that what might in lesser hands seem like an exercise in process becomes a deeply felt and absorbing experience.

The Double Sextet — with Currie on the podium – offers an altogether more dramatic proposition. The two outer movements are fast and furious, charged with an immediate cinematic urgency, the frenetic pace sustained with immaculate precision across the ensemble's shifting dialogues.

This is Reich the innovator at full stretch, and the players meet every demand with a brilliance that never tips into mere display.

Six Marimbas follows, and its 22 minutes pass in something close to a trance. The sustained, burnished tone of the instruments holds the listener in an almost hypnotic grip, the gradual phase-shifting of the interlocking patterns creating an acoustic architecture of remarkable beauty.

Dance Patterns closes the disc as the relative rarity of the programme and a most welcome one: scored for two pianos, two vibraphones, and two xylophones, it fizzes with percussive energy, its syncopations entirely characteristic of a composer whose fascination with movement and pattern has never dimmed. The work ends proceedings with a lightness of touch that perfectly offsets the intensity elsewhere.

Throughout, the rhythmic propulsion is electrifying, the ensemble achieving that rare combination of machine-like precision and genuine musical humanity. As the great man approaches this milestone, The Sextets stands as both a celebration and a testament — proof, if any were still needed, that his music continues to entrance, uplift, and endure.

To celebrate Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, the Colin Currie Group will be touring a new programme in autumn 2026, to include Double Sextet and other works by Reich – dates to be announced


Friday 2, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 October 2026. The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead, UK Further dates to be announced.