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Ed Miles

Steve Reich: Different Trains

with Ligeti Quartet
6 Oct 2026 19:00
6 Oct 2026
19:00
  • 6 Oct 2026
    19:00
    Schwarzman Centre, Oxford
    Sohmen Concert Hall
    Book now

Propulsive, elegaic and affecting music, performed by a world-renowned string quartet. 

Steve Reich’s Different Trains is one of the defining works of the late 20th century, earning the composer a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition in 1989 and inspired by the train journeys Reich took as a child across the United States during the Second World War.

Fragments of speech from train conductors, Holocaust survivors and Reich's governess are interwoven with live strings, creating a haunting sonic tapestry. For this performance, the tape track has been remastered for spatialised sound, animating it with a vividness beyond what listeners may previously have heard, and brought to life alongside the Ligeti Quartet. 

Alongside it is Justė Janulytė’s Circle for a Square, a reimagining of a work originally conceived for four string quartets that plays with the sense of space and time, and Reich's Triple Quartet, a three-movement work of exhilarating momentum and intensity, written for three string quartets.

Three different journeys, with the groundbreaking Ligeti Quartet as bold and brilliant guides.

Part of Steve Reich in Focus, a series celebrating the 90th birthday of one of the most influential musical minds of our time.


Performers

Ligeti Quartet 


Repertoire

Steve Reich Different Trains

Justė Janulytė Circle for a Square 

Steve Reich Triple Quartet

Running time:
Approx. 75 minutes (no interval)

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Ligeti Quartet
Louise Mason
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Ed Miles
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Technical mastery and creative interpretation

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Ligeti Quartet

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