Another of my exciting recent Faroese discoveries, while preparing for the recent World New Music Days, is The Distance Between Us, a collaboration between composer Tróndur Bogason and the Faroes’ principal new music ensemble, Aldubáran (who were prominent during WNMD). In many respects the album’s title, and accompanying artwork, tell …
CD/Digital releases
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As part of my preparation for festivals, i invariably spend time beforehand with music that’s directly related either to where i’m going and / or to what i’ll be hearing. In the case of the recent World New Music Days, this involved revisiting a lot of music i encountered during …
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Anyone familiar with Björk’s album Utopia – my Best Album of 2017 – will be aware of the ensemble of flutes that features prominently in most of its tracks. Seven of those flautists, Áshildur Haraldsdóttir, Berglind María Tómasdóttir, Björg Brjánsdóttir, Dagný Marinósdóttir, Sólveig Magnúsdóttir, Steinunn Vala Pálsdóttir and Þuríður Jónsdóttir, …
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20th CenturyCD/Digital releases
Grażyna Bacewicz – Complete Symphonic Works Vol. 2; Orchestral Works, Vol. 1
by 5:4It was a little under a year ago that the CPO label brought out the first volume in their new series exploring the Complete Symphonic Works of Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz. As i pointed out in my review, they effectively jumped into her music halfway through, beginning in the early …
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i sometimes wonder whether i’ve come to prize obfuscation in music more than clarity. When things are unclear, things get interesting, the ear and mind work harder, there’s potentially something to be discovered. This is one of the primary aspects that i’ve been revelling in when spending time with Turkish …
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For many years i’ve been a keen follower of the work of Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Kramer, better known as Coppice, and have often written about their unique electroacoustic output. There are many things that draw me to it, one of the strongest being the way in which they create, …
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This time last year I was deeply immersed in the music of Gloria Coates. preparing for the Dialogue we were planning to record in July. It still fills me with deep sadness that Gloria’s cancer got to her before we could get together, but it’s been nice to see a …
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It’s been far too long. Six years since Lee Fraser‘s last album, Cor Unvers, and a full decade since his debut, Dark Camber, both of which were among my very best albums of 2018 and 2014 respectively, and both of which continue to blow my mind anew every time i …
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CD/Digital releases
Sanae Yoshida – My Microtonal Piano; Henrik Hellstenius – Public Behaviour
by 5:4I want to flag up two recent albums for which i’ve contributed liner notes, both of which focus on music from Norway, and both of which have coincidentally been released around the same time.
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Symphony No. 16 (1979) Allan Pettersson’s final completed work shares some similarities to Violin Concerto No. 2, inasmuch as it blurs the distinction between symphony and concerto. Pettersson went as far as to describe the concerto as “a symphony for violin and orchestra”, and it’s tempting to regard Symphony No. …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 14-15, 1978
by 5:4Somewhat incredibly, for a man crippled by rheumatoid arthritis and essentially confined to his apartment (four floors above ground level without an elevator), Allan Pettersson managed to begin and complete his next two symphonies within a single year.
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphony No. 13, Violin Concerto No. 2, 1976-77
by 5:4Symphony No. 13 (1976) In the first part of this Lent Series, i remarked on the sorry fact that most of the admittedly sparse commentary on Pettersson’s music has invariably adopted the stance that it is all bleak, tragic and full of despair. Several of the preceding works i’ve explored …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphony No. 12, Vox Humana, 1973-74
by 5:4Symphony No. 12 “De döda på torget” (1973-1974) When Allan Pettersson began work on his Twelfth Symphony, it had been nearly 30 years since he had set text to music (in the 24 Barfotasånger, completed in 1945). He turned to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, selecting nine poems that would …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 10-11, Symfonisk sats, 1971-73
by 5:4Symphony No. 10 (1971-1972) Not since Harrison Birtwistle’s Exody have i had so much trepidation writing about an orchestral piece. Pettersson’s Symphony No. 10 picks up the baton from No. 9 and doesn’t just run with it, but positively sprints for a full 25 minutes. That in itself makes the …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 8-9, 1968-70
by 5:4Symphony No. 8 (1968-1969) Allan Pettersson’s previous two symphonies, though structured as single movements, both featured what amounts to two distinct sections. Symphony No. 8 is the same, though here Pettersson explicitly divides the work into two movements. This is an interesting decision, as it can easily be argued that, …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 6-7, 1963-67
by 5:4Symphony No. 6 (1963-1966) i said previously that Symphony No. 5 upped the ante, so perhaps it seems like hyperbole to say that in Symphony No. 6 Pettersson does it again, but there really is no other way of perceiving this vast 60-minute, single span behemoth. By this point in …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 4-5, 1958-62
by 5:4Symphony No. 4 (1958-1959) By now, the paradigm is well-established: Pettersson’s music is one of disruptive struggle, where contrasting, sometimes contradictory, musical ideas jostle and collide in a cycle of seemingly unstoppable volatility. In his previous work, the Concerto No. 3 for String Orchestra, Pettersson had allowed himself a greater …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 for String Orchestra, 1956-57
by 5:4Following on from his first three symphonies, in the mid-1950s Allan Pettersson’s compositional interest returned to strings, writing two more concertos, one small, one large.
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: Symphonies Nos. 1-3, 1951-55
by 5:4Having spent a little over a decade exploring chamber and vocal music, from 1951 onward the trajectory of Allan Pettersson’s compositional journey changed, and changed permanently. In a similar way to Mahler, as soon as Pettersson began work on his first symphony, in 1951, it evidently became clear to him …
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CD/Digital releasesLent Series
Allan Pettersson – Complete Edition: First major works, 1949-51
by 5:4Concerto No. 1 for Violin and String Quartet (1949) Arriving at Allan Pettersson’s first violin concerto comes as something of a shock. On the one hand, it continues the composer’s focus on chamber music that dates back to his earliest pieces, as well as his exploration of counterpoint, which was …