Hi simon
First of all many, many thanks for your reports from Huddersfield. The Festival is criminally neglected by the media with only the first weekend deemed worthy of a visit and review. I am looking forward to the radio transmission of Physis next year. There are no further performances planned, very sad that the BBC SSO do not see any reason to include a performance in Glasgow. The Arditti’s will perform Dillon Quartets but not as a cycle so what you heard during the final weekend at Huddersfield truly was a Festival occasion. Did you happen to attend the earlier Arditti concert? I do wonder how the Stroppa piece sounded. Many thanks and kind regards.
Hi Alan – no, i couldn’t make it to the Saturday evening Arditti quartet, but i think part or all of it will be broadcast in due course. i think you’re absolutely right about the entire cycle being something special – although i really hope they do repeat the feat elsewhere, it was extremely illuminating to hear them all in order.
Cliff Laine
10 years ago
Dear Simon — I also would like to add my thanks to you for your interesting, perceptive and sometimes trenchant reports, and to congratulate you on lasting through a long and demanding course. It’s always fascinating to compare notes with someone more familiar with the music. I’m quite happy to have a fairly sensual and rather impatient approach to contemporary music and so it’s helpful to have features I might not have been aware of pointed out.
Not that it will do any good moaning to you, but just in case anyone from HCMF reads this, it is getting way overdue now for us, the audience, to have some kind of social facility between concerts — which at an utterly minimal level, would be somewhere to go to keep warm; and at a better one, would provide refreshments, a social gathering point, stalls from publishers and other relevant bodies, publicity and information, and a place for the currently divided strata of HCMF to socially mingle. Over the years I’ve seen it happen with an “adopted” pub, or with the old marquee on the small green outside the Art Gallery. But just somewhere — please!
Thanks for the kind words, Cliff – i have to say it wasn’t in practice as demanding as i’d feared it would be!
You’re not wrong about the social aspect – i think next year i ought to do something along the lines of a ‘Survival Guide’ to HCMF, highlighting out all sorts of useful tidbits of info regarding the best places to eat, drink and be merry. i’ll try to remember…
alan munro
10 years ago
Good point Cliff. I also meant to post earlier how much i missed the cd stall at the Uni entrance, Forsyths of Manchester? Mind you my credit card didn’t take the usual bashing!
The lack of Forsyths’ stall was noticed and much lamented by a number of people, including myself. But like you, Alan, my bank account was very relieved 🙂
[…] 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 […]
[…] to how difficult it seemed to parse, and as a consequence was a tricky piece to write about in my original review. The work isn’t performed often and no recording yet exists, so it’s one of a number of […]
[…] can remember well how the experience of hearing Dillon’s quartets 1 to 7 at HCMF 2014 (in chronological order) sounded like an exercise in diminishing returns. The earlier quartets were […]
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Hi simon
First of all many, many thanks for your reports from Huddersfield. The Festival is criminally neglected by the media with only the first weekend deemed worthy of a visit and review. I am looking forward to the radio transmission of Physis next year. There are no further performances planned, very sad that the BBC SSO do not see any reason to include a performance in Glasgow. The Arditti’s will perform Dillon Quartets but not as a cycle so what you heard during the final weekend at Huddersfield truly was a Festival occasion. Did you happen to attend the earlier Arditti concert? I do wonder how the Stroppa piece sounded. Many thanks and kind regards.
Hi Alan – no, i couldn’t make it to the Saturday evening Arditti quartet, but i think part or all of it will be broadcast in due course. i think you’re absolutely right about the entire cycle being something special – although i really hope they do repeat the feat elsewhere, it was extremely illuminating to hear them all in order.
Dear Simon — I also would like to add my thanks to you for your interesting, perceptive and sometimes trenchant reports, and to congratulate you on lasting through a long and demanding course. It’s always fascinating to compare notes with someone more familiar with the music. I’m quite happy to have a fairly sensual and rather impatient approach to contemporary music and so it’s helpful to have features I might not have been aware of pointed out.
Not that it will do any good moaning to you, but just in case anyone from HCMF reads this, it is getting way overdue now for us, the audience, to have some kind of social facility between concerts — which at an utterly minimal level, would be somewhere to go to keep warm; and at a better one, would provide refreshments, a social gathering point, stalls from publishers and other relevant bodies, publicity and information, and a place for the currently divided strata of HCMF to socially mingle. Over the years I’ve seen it happen with an “adopted” pub, or with the old marquee on the small green outside the Art Gallery. But just somewhere — please!
Thanks for the kind words, Cliff – i have to say it wasn’t in practice as demanding as i’d feared it would be!
You’re not wrong about the social aspect – i think next year i ought to do something along the lines of a ‘Survival Guide’ to HCMF, highlighting out all sorts of useful tidbits of info regarding the best places to eat, drink and be merry. i’ll try to remember…
Good point Cliff. I also meant to post earlier how much i missed the cd stall at the Uni entrance, Forsyths of Manchester? Mind you my credit card didn’t take the usual bashing!
The lack of Forsyths’ stall was noticed and much lamented by a number of people, including myself. But like you, Alan, my bank account was very relieved 🙂
[…] 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 […]
[…] to how difficult it seemed to parse, and as a consequence was a tricky piece to write about in my original review. The work isn’t performed often and no recording yet exists, so it’s one of a number of […]
[…] can remember well how the experience of hearing Dillon’s quartets 1 to 7 at HCMF 2014 (in chronological order) sounded like an exercise in diminishing returns. The earlier quartets were […]