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5:4
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Lent Series

  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Evelin Seppar – Seesama meri (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 1, 2021 • 05:00
    March 1, 2021 • 05:00

    The next piece i’m exploring in this year’s nature-themed Lent Series is a vocal work by Estonian composer Evelin Seppar. Pretty much all of my experience with Seppar’s music thus far has been vocal: Поля ли мои, поля (Fields, Oh My Fields) made a strong impression at the 2017 Estonian…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Joanna Bailie – To Be Beside the Seaside (World Première)

    by 5:4 February 25, 2021 • 05:00
    February 25, 2021 • 05:00

    For reasons geographical and pandemical, it’s quite a long while since i’ve had the chance to be by the sea. To a limited extent, i’ve been able to do this vicariously through the opening movement of To Be Beside the Seaside, the first orchestral work by English composer Joanna Bailie.…

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  • 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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  • Lent Series

    Carola Bauckholt – Zugvögel

    by 5:4 February 17, 2021 • 05:00
    February 17, 2021 • 05:00

    For the majority of us, throughout much of the last 12 months we’ve been largely unable or forbidden from travelling far from home. Personally, i’ve become increasingly aware of how fortunate i am to live somewhere rural, enabling me to enter the countryside by, literally, crossing the road. But many…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    John Tavener – Flood of Beauty (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 9, 2020 • 05:00
    April 9, 2020 • 05:00

    i’m bringing this year’s Lent Series to an end with the last large-scale work by one of Britain’s most strange and singular composers, John Tavener. Tavener died in November 2013, and in some respects it would be hard to go out with a bigger bang than with Flood of Beauty…

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  • Lent Series

    Collin Thomas – April Triptych

    by 5:4 April 1, 2020 • 05:00
    April 1, 2020 • 05:00

    The penultimate work i’m featuring in this year’s Lent Series is both the longest and, possibly (depending on your perspective), the simplest. Collin Thomas‘ April Triptych was released nine years ago on the long-defunct, Berlin-based netlabel Resting Bell. There are a number of reasons why the piece is interesting, but…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Harrison Birtwistle – Semper Dowland, semper dolens (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 26, 2020 • 05:00
    March 26, 2020 • 05:00

    Last autumn, when i began thinking about this Lent Series, one of the first works i intended to include was by Harrison Birtwistle, his opera The Last Supper. However, in light of the events that have transpired in the last couple of months, and which now overshadow everything, i’m instead…

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  • Lent Series

    JLIAT – J; S; A; E

    by 5:4 March 20, 2020 • 05:00
    March 20, 2020 • 05:00

    As COVID-19 gradually succeeds in bringing the entire globe to a depressing standstill, it seems as good a time as any for my Lent Series to look at some large-scale works that, from one perspective, could be said to be doing exactly the same. i’m usually very good at remembering…

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    The Hafler Trio – An Answer

    by 5:4 March 14, 2020 • 05:00
    March 14, 2020 • 05:00

    Let’s turn our attention to drones. The respective roles of time and material are perhaps nowhere more controversial – and polarising – than in drone-based music. Even if you find yourself drawn into the complexities of one form of drone, another can push you away with its relative monotony. For…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – Yes (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 8, 2020 • 05:00
    March 8, 2020 • 05:00

    One of the foci of this year’s Lent Series exploring larger-scale works is where time and material become convoluted. In the case of the next work i’m exploring, this kind of convolution applies not only to the music but also to the text that inspired it. Yes by Rebecca Saunders…

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Chubby Wolf – The Last Voices

    by 5:4 March 3, 2020 • 05:00
    March 3, 2020 • 05:00

    The next piece i’m exploring in this year’s Lent Series is The Last Voices by Danielle Baquet-Long, who released her solo work under the name Chubby Wolf. At 84 minutes long, it’s by far her longest piece, and the more i’ve spent time with it over the years, the more…

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Kenneth Kirschner – January 1, 2019

    by 5:4 February 26, 2020 • 05:00
    February 26, 2020 • 05:00

    It’s the first day of Lent, and also therefore the start of this year’s 5:4 Lent Series. Three years ago my focus was on miniature works, and for 2020 i’m going in the opposite direction, exploring compositions that occupy larger-scale durations. However, this is not simply about pieces that are…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Veronique Vaka – Lendh (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 19, 2019 • 11:24
    April 19, 2019 • 11:24

    To bring this year’s Lent Series to a close, i’m returning to a piece i first heard a few months ago, during Iceland’s Dark Music Days festival. One of the most memorable works from that week in Reykjavík was Lendh, by Canadian composer and cellist Veronique Vaka. In her programme…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Marc Sabat – The Luminiferous Aether (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 15, 2019 • 15:08
    April 15, 2019 • 15:08

    What happens in a composition, both in terms of moment-by-moment activity as well as long-term direction, can sound highly organised and micro-managed or spontaneous and accidental (not necessarily reflecting the way in which they were composed, of course). More interesting is when a piece blurs that distinction and sounds like…

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  • Lent Series

    Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony No. 9

    by 5:4 April 11, 2019 • 06:00
    April 11, 2019 • 06:00

    Though it lasts only 23 minutes, is cast in a single movement and was described by its composer as being “very modest”, Peter Maxwell Davies‘ Symphony No. 9 is a seriously substantial, thought-provoking work. Composed in 2012, those of a more republican persuasion might be put off by it being…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Judit Varga – …alles Fleisch… (UK Première)

    by 5:4 April 8, 2019 • 16:06
    April 8, 2019 • 16:06

    All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls… Words from the biblical book of 1 Peter, set to music in Brahms’ German Requiem and thereby alluded to in the title of Hungarian composer Judit Varga‘s orchestral work…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Arne Gieshoff – Burr (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 5, 2019 • 11:59
    April 5, 2019 • 11:59

    “You put structures in place, and then they kind of surprise you.” Words said by German composer Arne Gieshoff prior to the first performance of his orchestral work Burr. This seems entirely appropriate, since the piece takes its name and inspiration from burr puzzles, in which pieces of wood are arranged…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Harrison Birtwistle – Donum Simoni MMXVIII (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 30, 2019 • 17:24
    March 30, 2019 • 17:24

    Fanfares are strange things. Short, loud and flamboyant, like hearing an introduction being given by the world’s biggest extrovert. Back in the days when i flirted with being a percussionist, my role in fanfares seemed to amount to little more than providing brief, barely-controlled crashes and bangs at carefully-coordinated moments;…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Catherine Lamb – portions transparent/opaque (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 27, 2019 • 12:16
    March 27, 2019 • 12:16

    I am interested in the long introduction (unfolding) form, in elemental tonal interaction, in aggregation and augmentation, in liminal perceptual states, shifts in density, the filtered atmosphere, and intense, focused experiences. This is how US composer Catherine Lamb summarised her music to me in 2017. On that occasion, they served…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    John Oswald – I’d love to turn (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 23, 2019 • 06:00
    March 23, 2019 • 06:00

    Many people will likely have first encountered the work of Canadian composer John Oswald through one of two things: either the wonderfully weird collection of ‘Mystery Tapes’ he began putting out in the early 1980s or, more likely, his 1989 album that gave the name to a new form of…

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5:4
  • About
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    • The Proms premières – Poll results
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