Reich: Electric Counterpoint

Sean Shibe is playing The Playhouse in Sheffield on Saturday 5 December, and the set is a bit of a time-travelling trip. He's a Scottish guitarist, and the whole night is built around a tour of four centuries of music, with Bach, Steve Reich and Thomas Adès all on the same bill. It's not every day you get the Baroque, the minimalist and the contemporary in one sitting, so if you're the kind of person who likes to jump between eras rather than stick to one, this is right up your street.

The Reich piece that gives the night its name is Electric Counterpoint, a work written for electric guitar that's all about overlapping patterns and shifting rhythms. It's a stark contrast to the Bach, and having Adès in the mix pulls the whole thing into the present day. Between them, they cover a huge stretch of musical history, and Shibe is the one holding the thread through all of it.

There's a bit of a specific way the night is being framed, too. The listing describes Reich as a magnetic performer, a prolific recording artist and a curious, wide-ranging musical explorer, and it presents the concert as a chance to see one of the most celebrated musicians working today in the intimate setting of the Playhouse. It's that smaller room that makes the difference here — you're close enough to see the work going into the playing, rather than watching from the back of a big hall.

It starts at 19:00 at The Playhouse, so you've got the full evening ahead of you. If you've never seen Shibe live, this is a good place to start, especially with a programme that lets you hear how far the guitar has travelled from Bach to Reich and beyond.