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Proms 2016: the premières – how you voted

Posted on September 29, 2016 by 5:4 in Premières, Proms | Leave a comment

Many thanks to all of you who expressed your views on this year’s Proms premières, it’s always fascinating to compare my own responses with those of so many others, particularly when we disagree! Since closing the polls a few days ago, i’ve fed the results (791 votes) into what has become by now quite a clever little spreadsheet—and voilà, here’s a summary of how you all voted. Worst New Work Lera Auerbach – The Infant Minstrel and his Peculiar Menagerie … →

Gigs, gigs, gigs: Alba New Music

Posted on September 27, 2016 by 5:4 in Announcements, Concerts | Leave a comment

A quick heads-up about a forthcoming mini festival that will, i’m sure, turn out to pack a punch inversely proportional to its duration. Alba New Music is a new Scottish charity “devoted to celebrating the sonic avant garde”. Following a couple of one-off gigs earlier this year, they’re launching their first weekend of concerts, which will take place in Edinburgh on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 October. The line-up/repertoire is lip-smackingly inviting: on the Friday evening, Huddersfield guitar hero Diego Castro Magas … →

Blasts from the Past: Dmitri Shostakovich – Cello Concerto No. 2

Posted on September 25, 2016 by 5:4 in Anniversaries, Blasts from the Past | 2 Comments

On this day, in 1966, Dmitri Shostakovich turned 60, and the evening brought a birthday concert including the world première of his Cello Concerto No. 2. The piece is well worth singling out for celebration, partly because to my mind it starts to resolve the very real difficulties that confront listeners when they engage with his music on anything more than the most superficial level. Put simply, there’s a problem, and it’s one i mentioned in a recent review (on Bachtrack) of … →

New releases: symphonies by Paul von Klenau, Peter Maxwell Davies, Andrzej Panufnik, Xiaogang Ye & Per Nørgård

Posted on September 17, 2016 by 5:4 in CD/Digital releases | 1 Comment

It’s high time i got back to appraising some of the more interesting new releases. No fewer than three contemporary pieces bearing the title ‘symphony’ were performed at this year’s Proms, and coincidentally quite a few of the CDs i’ve been sent have also featured 20th and 21st century symphonies. What constitutes a ‘symphony’ these days is a good question, one that these six albums don’t so much answer as offer an assortment of interpretations of what it might mean.

New digital EP: Studies, vol. 1

Posted on September 15, 2016 by 5:4 in Announcements, CD/Digital releases, i | Leave a comment

It’s been a while since my last CD release, so i’m especially pleased to announce that, a few days ago, i brought out a new EP, the first in an ongoing series. Those of you familiar with my earlier electronic work will know that there’s been a tendency to embrace extremes. My last two discs, Night Liminal and Dither • Pother • Roil exemplify that pretty strongly. For the last couple of years, my electronic music has turned away from this … →

Proms 2016: Tom Harrold – Raze (World Première)

Posted on September 11, 2016 by 5:4 in Premières, Proms | Leave a comment

Quite apart from the manifold inherent issues with which the occasion has long been afflicted, the Last Night of the Proms hasn’t exactly acquitted itself with particular brilliance as far its annual opening world premières are concerned. Consider the last few years’ efforts from Eleanor Alberga, Gavin Higgins, Anna Clyne, Peter Maxwell Davies and Jonathan Dove, and you’re looking at a list of bland, lowest-common-denominator fripperies bound for oblivion. Mark Simpson’s splendid work sparks, from the 2012 season, is a lone exception to … →

Proms 2016: Julian Anderson – Incantesimi & Paul Desenne – Hipnosis mariposa (UK Premières)

Posted on September 10, 2016 by 5:4 in Premières, Proms | Leave a comment

As the end of the Proms draws nigh, the new works seem to have been taking on an increasing delicacy. And, to a large extent, simplicity, Julian Anderson‘s Incantesimi taking inspiration from the orrery, a mechanical reproduction of the the solar system, while Venezuelan composer Paul Desenne, in a homage to late singer Simón Díaz, draws on one of his children’s songs, ‘El Becerrito’, about a cow called Butterfly who has a calf (also known as ‘La vaca Mariposa’; words here), as … →