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Anniversaries

  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesCD/Digital releases

    Ligeti at 100

    by 5:4 May 28, 2023 • 05:00
    May 28, 2023 • 05:00

    Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of György Ligeti, one of the 20th century’s most significant and consistently engaging composers. i’ve been spending time lately with three new releases that together present an excellent overview of Ligeti’s output, from the perspectives of his music for piano, choir and …

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesBlasts from the Past

    Blasts From the Past: Rued Langgaard – Symphony No. 1

    by 5:4 April 10, 2023 • 08:58
    April 10, 2023 • 08:58

    110 years ago today, something extraordinary took place in Berlin. During the previous few years, the young Danish composer Rued Langgaard had been working on his first symphony. He began it in early 1908, at the age of 14, and completed it the following year, though he continued revising the …

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  • Anniversaries

    20 years on: Autechre – Gantz Graf

    by 5:4 August 5, 2022 • 05:00
    August 5, 2022 • 05:00

    Though i find it a bit hard to believe, today marks the 20th anniversary of one of Autechre‘s most dazzling creations, Gantz Graf. It was the opener on a 3-track EP, but the other two tracks, Dial and Cap.IV, though significantly longer than Gantz Graf‘s mere 4-minute duration, were utterly …

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesCD/Digital releases

    25 years on: John Wall – Fractuur

    by 5:4 May 26, 2022 • 05:00
    May 26, 2022 • 05:00

    Fractuur, released in 1997, occupies an interesting position in the output of British composer John Wall, coming at a pivotal point in his approach to working with sound. On Wall’s previous album Alterstill, released two years earlier, he had created five ambitious sound sculptures, playfully constructed from samples plundered from …

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  • AnniversariesConcerts

    Symphony Hall, Birmingham: African Sanctus

    by 5:4 January 18, 2022 • 11:57
    January 18, 2022 • 11:57

    i wish i could remember how i first came into contact with African Sanctus. All i can be certain of is that it was at least 25 years ago, as i took part in a performance of the piece (being in charge of the tape part) given by Coventry Philharmonic …

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  • AnniversariesPremières

    Éliane Radigue – Occam Delta XV (UK Première)

    by 5:4 January 26, 2020 • 06:00
    January 26, 2020 • 06:00

    To conclude my Éliane Radigue birthday weekend, i’m returning to a work in the Occam series that i’ve briefly written about previously, Occam Delta XV. The piece dates from 2018 and results from a collaboration between Radigue and Quatuor Bozzini. In a way that i hope isn’t too fanciful, the overall …

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  • Anniversaries

    Éliane Radigue – Occam XXI

    by 5:4 January 25, 2020 • 06:00
    January 25, 2020 • 06:00

    The second of the three works i’m exploring in this Éliane Radigue birthday long weekend is also the most austere. Not only is Occam XXI for a single instrument, violin, but also in contrast to perhaps the majority of the Occam series, the harmonic language of the piece is radically …

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  • AnniversariesPremières

    Éliane Radigue – Occam River XV (World Première)

    by 5:4 January 24, 2020 • 11:30
    January 24, 2020 • 11:30

    A composer whose work i return to more often than most – and find the experience completely different every time i do – is Éliane Radigue. Today is the grande dame’s 88th birthday – joyeux anniversaire! – so, as i did a few years ago, i’m going to devote another …

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  • AnniversariesCD/Digital releasesRetrospectives

    Four aspects of Erkki-Sven Tüür: Spectrums

    by 5:4 October 18, 2019 • 19:11
    October 18, 2019 • 19:11

    Birthdays and anniversaries provide an excellent opportunity to stop and look back, and contemplate everything that’s happened along the path of time that leads to here and now. This week – on Wednesday, in fact – marked the 60th birthday of Estonia’s most unconventional and irrepressible composer, Erkki-Sven Tüür. i’ve …

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  • AnniversariesCD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Rebecca Saunders on record (Part 1)

    by 5:4 February 24, 2018 • 00:00
    February 24, 2018 • 00:00

    Alongside the individual pieces i’m focusing on in this Lent Series, i’m also going to be providing an overview of as much as possible of Rebecca Saunders’ music that has been released commercially. When i started planning this series of articles last autumn, my perception was that there wasn’t very …

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  • AnniversariesLent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – murmurs (UK Première)

    by 5:4 February 19, 2018 • 00:00
    February 19, 2018 • 00:00

    Since the trace is not a presence but the simulacrum of a presence that dislocates itself, displaces itself, refers itself, it properly has no site; erasure belongs to its structure. And not only the erasure which must always be able to overtake it (without which it would not be a …

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  • AnniversariesLent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – traces (UK/Austrian Premières)

    by 5:4 February 14, 2018 • 00:00
    February 14, 2018 • 00:00

    Rebecca Saunders turned 50 towards the end of last year, so to mark this milestone the 5:4 Lent Series will this year be dedicated to her music. Over the course of the next six weeks, i’ll be looking at a number of her pieces in some detail, as well as …

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  • Anniversaries

    Brian Ferneyhough – Fanfare for Klaus Huber

    by 5:4 January 16, 2018 • 11:36
    January 16, 2018 • 11:36

    Today is the 75th birthday of one of the UK’s most consistently remarkable, bewildering, surprising and moving composers, Brian Ferneyhough. By way of a miniature celebration, here are two recordings of his shortest composition, Fanfare for Klaus Huber for two percussionists. It’s a piece i feel somewhat connected to: composed in …

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesBlasts from the Past

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

    by 5:4 September 25, 2016 • 11:12
    September 25, 2016 • 11:12

    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 …

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  • AnniversariesAnnouncementsConcerts

    Commemorating Milton

    by 5:4 May 18, 2016 • 15:57
    May 18, 2016 • 15:57

    Last week saw the centenary of the birth of American composer Milton Babbitt. Babbitt continues to be a neglected figure, and personally speaking, the anniversary served to remind how little i know of his music and how rarely i’ve encountered it over the years. Those in a similar situation will …

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  • Anniversaries

    In memoriam: Tōru Takemitsu – Seasons

    by 5:4 April 25, 2016 • 21:48
    April 25, 2016 • 21:48

    An anniversary i wasn’t able to observe due to being engrossed in my Lent series was that of the death of Tōru Takemitsu, who died a little over twenty years ago, on 20 February 1996. i can still remember the day vividly; at the time i was an undergraduate at the Birmingham …

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  • Anniversaries

    Éliane Radigue – OCCAM DELTA IV

    by 5:4 January 24, 2016 • 19:31
    January 24, 2016 • 19:31

    It’s the grande dame‘s birthday today, and i’m rounding off my Éliane Radigue long weekend with another work from the OCCAM OCEAN series, one that in some respects combines those featured in the last couple of days. OCCAM DELTA IV, for bowed harp, microtonal tuba and cello, dates from 2013, …

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  • Anniversaries

    Éliane Radigue – OCCAM XI

    by 5:4 January 23, 2016 • 19:01
    January 23, 2016 • 19:01

    For the second day of my Éliane Radigue long weekend, another work from the OCCAM OCEAN series, and a particularly austere one. Composed in 2013, OCCAM XI is not simply for solo tuba, but solo microtonal tuba, specifically that of British tubist Robin Hayward. Not that that’s immediately obvious from …

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  • AnniversariesPremières

    Éliane Radigue – OCCAM RIVER XII (World Première)

    by 5:4 January 22, 2016 • 22:09
    January 22, 2016 • 22:09

    This coming Sunday is French composer Éliane Radigue‘s birthday, so by way of a little celebration, i’m going to devote a long weekend to some of her more recent work. Having spent much of her life creating electronic music (exclusively composed on the ARP 2500), for the last decade-and-a-bit Radigue’s …

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesBlasts from the Past

    Blasts from the Past: György Ligeti – Poème symphonique

    by 5:4 June 14, 2014 • 16:05
    June 14, 2014 • 16:05

    A couple of days ago marked the eighth anniversary of the death of Hungarian composer György Ligeti. To mark the event, and also begin a new occasional series on 5:4, i’d like to take a brief look back at one of the more enigmatic works of Ligeti’s career. Poème symphonique …

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5:4
  • About
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
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