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Lent Series

  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Chubby Wolf – The Last Voices

    by 5:4 March 3, 2020 • 05:00
    March 3, 2020 • 05:00 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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 1 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    “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 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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 2 minutes read

    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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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Naomi Pinnock – The Field is Woven (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 18, 2019 • 12:55
    March 18, 2019 • 12:55 2 minutes read

    The inspiration for Naomi Pinnock‘s 2018 orchestral work The field is woven is a series of paintings from 1979 by Agnes Martin titled The Islands. From a distance, these paintings appear to be squares of off-white blankness, yet on closer inspection details become apparent, in the form of colours and …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Kristin Þóra Haraldsdóttir – In Praise of Darkness (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2019 • 14:55
    March 13, 2019 • 14:55 1 minutes read

    One of the things i particularly enjoy when listening is the sense of not knowing where i am, uncertain of what exactly the music is doing or where it’s going: of being kept, for a time at least, in the dark. It’s this kind of ‘darkness’ that i think typifies …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    James Clarke – Untitled No. 9 (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 10, 2019 • 06:00
    March 10, 2019 • 06:00 1 minutes read

    British composer James Clarke‘s output has moved away from having poetic or allusive titles, and for the last 12 or so years his works have either been given a codename indicating the year followed by a letter (e.g. 2013-V) or are simply ‘Untitled’. The fact that the latter are numbered …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Liisa Hirsch – Lävi (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 6, 2019 • 06:00
    March 6, 2019 • 06:00 2 minutes read

    Being the first day of the season of Lent, today marks the start of the 5:4 Lent Series. This year, i’m going to be exploring works written for full orchestra, beginning with a piece by Estonian Liisa Hirsch. Hirsch is an intriguing composer; i’m still at a relatively early stage of …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – Skin (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 31, 2018 • 11:00
    March 31, 2018 • 11:00 1 minutes read

    …this is the room’s essence not being now look closer mere dust dust is the skin of a room history is a skin the older it gets the more impressions are left on its surface look again… These words, spoken by the narrator in Samuel Beckett’s 1975 play The Ghost …

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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 2 minutes read

    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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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – Alba (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 23, 2018 • 12:47
    March 23, 2018 • 12:47 3 minutes read

    As i’ve noted in previous articles in this Lent series, there are very strong and clear themes and interests – obsessions, even – running through Rebecca Saunders‘ music, with concomitant aspects of overlap and even tautology from work to work. In this respect, Saunders’ entire output can be heard as the …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Rebecca Saunders on record (Part 3)

    by 5:4 March 17, 2018 • 13:03
    March 17, 2018 • 13:03 1 minutes read

    Continuing my survey of recordings of Rebecca Saunders‘ music, i’m looking today at a cluster of pieces featured on compilations as well as a couple of standalone releases. The last work i wrote about, still, initially bore the provisional title rage, and while Saunders ultimately pulled back from this in …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – still (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2018 • 15:17
    March 13, 2018 • 15:17 2 minutes read

    The next piece i’m looking at in my Lent Series celebrating the music of Rebecca Saunders is something of an exception on 5:4, as it’s a work i’ve written about before. Saunders’ violin concerto still dates from 2011, and i explored the piece six years ago, following its first UK …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Rebecca Saunders on record (Part 2)

    by 5:4 March 6, 2018 • 13:09
    March 6, 2018 • 13:09 2 minutes read

    In continuing my survey of recordings of Rebecca Saunders‘ music, i’m turning my attention now to works that are earlier than everything i’ve explored so far. Stirrings Still, released in 2008 on the Wergo label, is an excellent survey of what we might call (for now, at least) ‘mid-period’ Saunders, …

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5:4
  • About
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    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
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  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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