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Iancu Dumitrescu – Élan and Permanence (World Première)

Posted on March 2, 2015 by 5:4 in Lent Series | 1 Comment

From the cello to the electric guitar, and a curiously strange concerto by Romanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu (husband of Ana-Maria Avram, featured on 5:4 last year). Particularly well-known (and self-described) as a composer with ‘spectralist’ leanings—but not, according to Dumitrescu, in the same way as the French spectralists—his guitar concerto Élan and Permanence seems almost to go out of its way to reduce or at least radically rethink the role of the soloist. Even describing the guitar as a soloist … →

Davíð Brynjar Franzson – on Matter and Materiality (World Première)

Posted on February 26, 2015 by 5:4 in Lent Series | Leave a comment

Without wishing to appear too biased towards the cello, the next concerto in my Lent series is another work that features that instrument at its epicentre. A few months back, i was enthusing about Davíð Brynjar Franzson‘s radical treatment of the piano; in his new work on Matter and Materiality, he puts the cello into an equally radical but altogether more gruelling context. If the soloist can be described as not doing much, it’s certainly not for want of trying. … →

Electric Spring 2015

Posted on February 25, 2015 by 5:4 in Concerts | Leave a comment

i don’t know which felt more strange, being in Huddersfield for a music festival in February (rather than November), or the fact that, somehow, for two decades the university’s Electric Spring festival has entirely passed me by. Better late than never, i suppose, especially as this year’s festival, which took place over five days last week, was celebrating a double anniversary, both the 20 years that Electric Spring has existed as well as the 10 years during which it has been … →

Patrick Nunn – Fata Morgana

Posted on February 22, 2015 by 5:4 in Lent Series | 1 Comment

The next concerto in my Lent series is another involving solo cello, Fata Morgana by British composer Patrick Nunn. Composed in 2007, this short work—for cello, chamber ensemble and live electronics—takes its title primarily from the character of Morgan le Fay (known among many other names as Fata Morgana), who in Arthurian legend was a shape-shifting enchantress. The term is also used for a particular type of mirage effect, where objects at sea, visible just above the horizon, become significantly … →

Alvin Lucier – Slices

Posted on February 18, 2015 by 5:4 in Lent Series | 3 Comments

It’s Ash Wednesday, and therefore the start of my annual Lent Series, which this year i’m devoting to contemporary concertos. i’m going to treat the term ‘concerto’ with a certain amount of latitude, focussing primarily on works where one or more soloists act in relation to a larger body of players. To begin, a relatively simple but beguiling work for cello and orchestra by Alvin Lucier, composed in 2007. The title, Slices, is indicative of the relationship that the soloist has … →

Gigs, gigs, gigs

Posted on February 17, 2015 by 5:4 in Concerts | 3 Comments

A brief, belated heads-up about an essential occasion for all those with more than a passing interest in new electronic and electroacoustic music. Huddersfield University’s Electric Spring festival begins tomorrow and runs until Sunday, celebrating the 20th year of its existence (a celebration anticipated at HCMF 2014). There are some tantalising performances scheduled, including an opening-night homage to the music of two of the UK’s most radical electronic experimentalists, Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram, plus concerts featuring the work of, … →

HCMF 2014 revisited: James Dillon – Physis (World Première)

Posted on February 15, 2015 by 5:4 in HCMF, Premières | Leave a comment

To conclude my revisiting of HCMF 2014 for the time being, i have to feature something by the festival’s Composer-in-Residence, James Dillon. There’s much to choose from, but the single work that made the strongest impact on me was Physis, receiving its world première. i’ve said a little about the work’s background (dating back over 10 years) as well as the way Dillon culled one part of the piece in my original review, but here’s Dillon’s statement in full: In … →

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