Radiohead Rewrite/The Rest Is Noise Festival 2013

A recent press release from the Southbank Centre has created a certain amount of web excitement around two prospects for next year’s season.

1. Steve Reich is writing a piece called ‘Radiohead Rewrite’, based on two songs by the band: ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’. It will be premiered by the London Sinfonietta next March. [Has he been having a cheeky read of the biting point manifesto? In the opinion of this humble blogger: Yes, definitely.]
2. The Centre are holding a massive year-long festival next year inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest is Noise, with historically-themed concerts tracing the development of twentieth-century music as the year progresses…

…An interesting concept: exciting because it means more modern/contemporary music at this big institution? potentially dangerous because it threatens to frame all this music in a purely ‘historical’ light, without suggesting any overriding contemporary relevance? exciting because it is based on a text which managed to engage a new, non-academic audience with modern music in an exciting and accessible way? potentially dangerous because this canonisation of ‘old but not that old music’ could get in the way of new programming and the importance of really contemporary composition? exciting because it’s managed to get itself mentioned on indie mecca Pitchfork Media amongst other sites, and Alex Ross’s crossover prestige may well draw in certain new crowds interested in progressive art but unfamiliar with the concert hall?

We shall see…

Southbank Centre’s Festival site is HERE <—

Also, Alex Ross’s BLOG and Steve Reich’s SITE