The Colin Currie Group was founded in 2006, originally for a concert of Steve Reich’s music at the Proms, beginning, in the process, an association with the composer that has remained close and steadfast. The all-Reich programme for the group’s appearance at Currie’s Metal Wood Skin festival included an appearance by Reich, joining Currie on the platform for a deft performance of Clapping Music, together with the world premiere of his Quartet for two vibraphones and two pianos, commissioned for the occasion.

Relaxed, intimate and bittersweet in mood, it’s a chamber work in essence, written with the kind of egalitarianism between the musicians that we often find in string quartets, as the emphasis shuttles fluidly from one player, or combination of players, to the next. The slow central section, with its twisting vibraphone lines and shifting harmonies, is somewhat impressionistic. Rhythmic propulsion in the more dynamic outer movements frequently gives way to block chordal figurations that briefly unite all four players in music of considerable rhythmic complexity. Its grace belies its difficulty: it was played with an unassuming virtuosity and a well-nigh faultless sense of ensemble, in which mutual understanding is paramount. Reich was given a hero’s reception when it was over.

Its instrumental companion pieces were the 1985 Sextet for percussion and keyboards and Mallet Quartet for two marimbas and two vibraphones, written in 2009. Sextet, with its imposing five-section structure and its emotional passage from joy to unease and back again, is one of Reich’s greatest, most complex works. Mallet Quartet is compact, tense, unsettling in tone. Both works demand immense reserves of stamina and concentration on the part of their players, challenges superbly met in performances at once hypnotic and thrilling.