Solem Quartet Late

Two giant musical voices of the late twentieth century meet in this relaxed concert. Solem Quartet perform Steve Reich’s iconic Different Trains, and vocalist Alice Zawadzki joins them for songs by Kate Bush, newly arranged for string quartet and voice.

Steve Reich Different Trains

Kate Bush arr. W. Newell selected songs

Written in 1988, Steve Reich’s Different Trains is a work that looks forward in its musical language, and looks back with its subject matter. Perhaps the composer’s most emotional work, Different Trains stands as a monument to the war generation.

Composed for string quartet + tape, the work utilises recorded speech as a source for the melodic material. Excerpts from interviews with people from the United States and Europe, including survivors of the Holocaust, detail personal experiences of those differing continents before, during and after the war.

Like Reich, Kate Bush is a visionary artist, pushing the boundaries of genre, form and style. Alice Zawadzki ‘a genuine original’ (The Guardian) joins the Solem Quartet for a set of some of Kate Bush’s most loved songs – including Running Up That Hill, This Woman’s Work, And Dream of Sheep and more – in new arrangements by Solem Quartet violinist, William Newell.

Solem Quartet is an innovative and adventurous string quartet and one of the UK’s brightest artistic voices. We are happy to welcome them in residence this year, presenting three concerts of their work spanning Beethoven to Kate Bush. In addition to these concerts, Solem Quartet will offer coaching to talented young musicians in conjunction with Guildhall Young Artists Norwich.

Make an evening of it at the Festival Bar