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  • About
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • List of compositions reviewed on 5:4
    • List of albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
    • Complete list of ratings
  • Mixtapes, etc.
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Submission Contact Form
5:4
Tag:

piano

  • Lent Series

    James Dillon – Dragonfly

    by 5:4 February 21, 2021 • 05:00
    February 21, 2021 • 05:00

    The longest work i’ve ever written about on 5:4 is Scottish composer James Dillon‘s magnificent three-hour Nine Rivers cycle, which i explored almost a decade ago. So it’s rather nice that the next piece i’m exploring in this year’s Lent Series focusing on nature, also by James Dillon, is one…

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  • ConcertsPremières

    CBSO Centre, Birmingham: BCMG – Migrating Sounds

    by 5:4 December 16, 2019 • 11:45
    December 16, 2019 • 11:45

    i’m going to start with an observation, a complaint and a plea. Yesterday evening’s concert given by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group featured four pieces of music that together lasted one hour and two minutes. The actual concert lasted more than double that length. It continues a trend that appears to…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2019 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 28, 2019 • 15:53
    November 28, 2019 • 15:53

    It’s many, many years since i spent meaningful time in the company of music by Can, so i went to founder member Irmin Schmidt‘s HCMF piano recital last Thursday with precisely no expectations. What transpired was one of the most mesmerising, understated performances that i’ve ever witnessed in St Paul’s…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Jakob Ullmann – Fremde Zeit Addendum 5; Stefan Fraunberger – Quellgeister #3 Bussd

    by 5:4 October 30, 2019 • 12:27
    October 30, 2019 • 12:27

    i’ve been spending time lately with new releases from two composers towards whose work i’ve hitherto felt almost universally positive. There’s something a little nerve-racking about this, inducing anxiety – and, to an extent, incredulity – that the unfamiliar new will be able to live up to the marvellous old.…

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  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2018: Ensemble Musikfabrik, Christian Marclay: Investigations

    by 5:4 November 19, 2018 • 00:27
    November 19, 2018 • 00:27

    It’s not unusual, considering HCMF’s openness to stepping outside the bounds of convention, for a new work at the festival to have to overcome how extraordinary it is. That was certainly the case in Huddersfield Town Hall yesterday afternoon, where Christian Marclay‘s Investigations received its world première. It wasn’t just…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Alexander Knaifel – Lukomoriye

    by 5:4 September 13, 2018 • 12:43
    September 13, 2018 • 12:43

    What is it that holds music together? How loosely can it be structured and/or organised, and at what point does its integrity irrevocably break down? When does intense earnestness become perceived as affectation? When does patience cease being a virtue and become a problem, even a handicap? i found myself…

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  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2018 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 April 26, 2018 • 15:16
    April 26, 2018 • 15:16

    One of the defining features of the Estonian Music Days is its openness to including decidedly unconventional concert situations. Last year’s Obscure Avenues, a two-hour experience during which we were blindfolded and led around to various performance spaces, remains among the most radical and memorable musical encounters i’ve ever experienced,…

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Rebecca Saunders on record (Part 4)

    by 5:4 March 28, 2018 • 14:15
    March 28, 2018 • 14:15

    Before i conclude my survey of the available recordings of Rebecca Saunders‘ music, i want to flag up some omissions. There are three works that i’m not able to discuss at this point as i haven’t yet got hold of copies of the discs on which they’re featured: rubricare (2005) which…

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  • Premières

    HCMF revisited: Michael Cutting – I AM A STRANGE LOOP V (World Première)

    by 5:4 November 13, 2017 • 17:00
    November 13, 2017 • 17:00

    In just five days’ time, this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival gets going. That’s a big deal anyway, but this is its 40th edition, so there’s even more cause than usual for celebration. As a warm-up, i’m going to spend this week revisiting a few of the more memorable pieces…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2017: Julian Anderson – The Imaginary Museum (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 28, 2017 • 14:09
    July 28, 2017 • 14:09

    Last autumn, at the Royal Musical Association’s annual conference, composer Julian Anderson presented a paper addressing what he described as “the problem of professionals involved in modern music denigrating and otherwise attempting to devalue the music they are supposed to support”. The paper – which unfortunately i’ve not yet been able…

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  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Cheltenham Music Festival 2017: Love Songs

    by 5:4 July 10, 2017 • 12:36
    July 10, 2017 • 12:36

    Last night saw the second concert of this year’s Cheltenham Music Festival to be almost completely devoted to contemporary music. i described the previous one, with E STuudio Youth Choir, as being “a mixed bag of confections”, and the same applies to this event, a piano recital titled ‘Love Songs’…

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  • CD/Digital releasesRetrospectives

    Michael Finnissy at 70: A Metier Retrospective – Part 3. Piano music

    by 5:4 March 14, 2017 • 14:41
    March 14, 2017 • 14:41

    It’s only a few days until Michael Finnissy‘s 70th birthday year comes to an end, so in the nick of time, here’s the final part of my retrospective of his music released by his most loyal label, Metier. In turning to the piano music, i’m conscious that, to some extent, i’m…

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  • Premières

    Howard Skempton – Piano Concerto (World Première)

    by 5:4 January 19, 2017 • 20:36
    January 19, 2017 • 20:36

    Another interesting première from 2016, also performed at the Tectonics festival, also for piano and orchestra, also featuring John Tilbury as soloist, is Howard Skempton‘s Piano Concerto. This is a work that i’ve been more than usually interested to hear. In conversations throughout the last couple of years, Howard has talked…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2015 revisited: Naomi Pinnock – Lines and Spaces (World Première)

    by 5:4 November 14, 2016 • 15:35
    November 14, 2016 • 15:35

    There are just four days to go until the start of this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and UK audiences get the chance–denied them at most other festivals on these shores—to experience some of today’s most experimental, radical and open-minded music-making. All being well i’ll be there for the duration…

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  • Blasts from the Past

    Blasts from the Past: Pierre Boulez – Piano Sonata No. 1

    by 5:4 January 5, 2016 • 22:51
    January 5, 2016 • 22:51

    “Vous êtes de la merde!” i’m going to begin 2016 by looking back 70 years to the earliest acknowledged work by one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated composers, Pierre Boulez. For much of his life, but particularly as a young composer, Boulez’s perceived demeanour was, to put it mildly,…

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  • Miscellaneous

    HCMF 2014 revisited: Morton Feldman – Piano Four Hands

    by 5:4 November 15, 2015 • 11:49
    November 15, 2015 • 11:49

    Not everything performed at HCMF is brand new, yet there are occasions when it feels as though one’s hearing a familiar piece for the first time. This happened last year with Morton Feldman‘s Piano Four Hands, a work that dates back over half a century, composed in 1958. One of…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2014 revisited: Jan Erik Mikalsen – Too much of a good thing is wonderful (UK Première)

    by 5:4 November 9, 2015 • 16:31
    November 9, 2015 • 16:31

    One of the strongest impressions that Norwegian composer Jan Erik Mikalsen‘s Too much of a good thing is wonderful made on me last year was grandiosity, emanating from allusions to Liberace, of whom the piece is something of an affectionate (if somewhat wry) homage. Returning to the piece since, that…

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  • Lent Series

    György Kurtág – …quasi una fantasia…

    by 5:4 March 18, 2015 • 02:08
    March 18, 2015 • 02:08

    It was many, many years ago (at the 1993 Meltdown Festival, in fact) that i first encountered the music of Romanian composer György Kurtág and became instantly entranced by it. Like Webern, Kurtág is drawn to expressing himself in tiny, fleeting musical acts for modestly-sized instrumental groupings, but unlike Webern…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2014 revisited: Howard Skempton – Oculus (World Première)

    by 5:4 January 23, 2015 • 22:15
    January 23, 2015 • 22:15

    One of the smallest works receiving their first performance at HCMF 2014 was Howard Skempton‘s two-minute Oculus, for solo piano. Despite such brevity, it’s a beguiling curiosity of a piece; indeed, ‘Skemptonian’ might be a good adjective for music that is weird, amusing and a bit baffling all in equal…

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2014: Judith Weir – Day Break Shadows Flee (World Première); Zhou Long – Postures (European Première); John Adams – Saxophone Concerto (UK Première)

    by 5:4 September 7, 2014 • 16:02
    September 7, 2014 • 16:02

    The latest round of Proms premières got one thinking about the relationship between expectation/innovation and engagement. It was Judith Weir‘s new work that got this particular ball rolling around the mind. A composer already at the less adventurous end of the new music spectrum, in recent years her music has…

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Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

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