Terry Riley @ Usher Hall

Four hundred electric guitars! At least, this was what was whispered as the crowd were led into the choir seating at the back of the Usher Hall, facing the stage and with the main auditorium hidden by a curtain. Was the curtain going to fall away, and the huge audience area going to be filled with a four hundred guitar crack at In C? In C (1964), tonight's billed rendition, is one of Terry Riley's several masterpieces, and broadly acknowledged as the seminal piece for the minimalist movement of modern classical music. A quirky yet meditative sequence of improvised repetitions, it can be performed by any number of performers, on any instruments and over any length of time. The audience this evening are offered a slightly more subdued affair than their imaginations had been allowed to play with: twelve performers including pianists, a vibraphonist, an effects knob twiddler and Riley himself on keys and Indian classical vocal chants. The ensemble play for nearly an hour, and if moments ebb shy of vitality, others are truly sublime-scraping in their beauty - an achievement celebrated by an extended standing ovation. [RJ Thomson]