• About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Submission Contact Form
5:4
Category:

Premières

  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Milton Babbitt – Autobiography of the Eye (European première)

    by 5:4 December 7, 2024 • 06:00
    December 7, 2024 • 06:00

    In my 2022 Advent Calendar, i included Milton Babbitt‘s An Encore, a work i likened to a nut that i kept returning to in order to try new ways to crack it. It’s a similar situation with the work of his i’m featuring today, Autobiography of the Eye for soprano …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Gloria Coates – Rainbow Across the Night Sky (World Première, a cappella version)

    by 5:4 December 4, 2024 • 06:00
    December 4, 2024 • 06:00

    In due course, when her music has finally been disseminated and explored properly, and begun to be understood, i’m convinced Gloria Coates will be revealed not only as one of the most fascinating and unique musical voices of modern times, but also as one its most prolific recyclers. In the …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Electra Perivolaris – A Forest Reawakens (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 2, 2024 • 06:00
    December 2, 2024 • 06:00

    It might seem a bit seasonally early, but the title of today’s Advent Calendar piece is, i suspect, to be taken figuratively. A Forest Reawakens by Electra Perivolaris is a short but potent orchestral work that articulates what one could read as the beginnings of a process of rebirth or …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 30, 2024 • 09:19
    November 30, 2024 • 09:19

    At the more serious end of the expressive spectrum, there was a lot to take in during my long weekend at this year’s HCMF. It was disappointing to witness, in Ann Cleare‘s TERRARIUM, yet another example of that which has become so prevalent at HCMF in recent years, a multimedia …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 28, 2024 • 12:50
    November 28, 2024 • 12:50

    Despite the fact that in recent years my general feeling about the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is that it’s become over-familiar and rather predictable – perhaps in need of a fresh start / reboot – my experience during the opening weekend of this year’s HCMF was genuinely unexpected: music that …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 20, 2024 • 11:56
    November 20, 2024 • 11:56

    As i mentioned previously, the majority of this year’s AFEKT was focused on solo performers – primarily members of Ensemble Musikfabrik – with or without electronics, and these proved to be the strongest events of the festival.

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2024 (Interlude): Ryoji Ikeda + Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Solo Exhibition

    by 5:4 November 14, 2024 • 10:59
    November 14, 2024 • 10:59

    In between the concerts and events at this year’s AFEKT festival, while i was in Tartu i was able to experience the latest venture from Japanese multimedia artist Ryoji Ikeda. Taking place in the spectacular Estonian National Museum, it comprised a solo exhibition and the world première of a collaboration …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 11, 2024 • 16:19
    November 11, 2024 • 16:19

    While the theoretical theme of this year’s AFEKT festival was music theatre, in practice what was projected strongest was intimacy, in terms of one-to-one communication. This was due to the fact that the festival focused primarily on solo performances given by, among others, members of Ensemble Musikfabrik, and even in …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • AnnouncementsPremières

    Leif Segerstam – Symphony No. 344 “Saluting a royal soul…”, bordercrossingly… (World Première)

    by 5:4 October 10, 2024 • 12:47
    October 10, 2024 • 12:47

    i want to pay a brief tribute to Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam, who died yesterday at the age of 80. As i noted a few years ago, i’m not a conductor fanboy, but Segerstam was one of the few who consistently got me excited every time he was …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2024: the premières (Part 3)

    by 5:4 September 23, 2024 • 11:42
    September 23, 2024 • 11:42

    It was only a few weeks ago that i was exploring music that took its inspirational origin from grandparental reminiscences. Then, the subject matter was dead fishermen, whereas this time it’s … cows. That might not seem a particularly promising starting point for a new song cycle, and yet Laulut …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2024: the premières (Part 2)

    by 5:4 September 20, 2024 • 06:00
    September 20, 2024 • 06:00

    Thomas Adès has always tended to be as qualitatively erratic as he is consistently overhyped, but his new orchestral piece Aquifer finds him back on the right side of accomplishment. The title refers to a subterranean stratum through which water can flow, and it’s a superb descriptor for both the …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2024: the premières (Part 1)

    by 5:4 September 17, 2024 • 11:44
    September 17, 2024 • 11:44

    Wow, what a shitshow. Something occurred to me, while spending time with the first cluster of noxious specimens being given world, European or UK premières at this year’s Proms. In contrast to the notion of lying by omission, conveying a falsehood via things we don’t say, i realised that to …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic & Estonian Music Days 2024 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 May 29, 2024 • 06:00
    May 29, 2024 • 06:00

    Two of the events at this year’s Baltic & Estonian Music Days were especially memorable. The first was given by one of the finest choirs in the world, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Conducted by Mai Simson in the somewhat simple, functional interior of Tartu’s otherwise imposing St Paul’s Church, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic & Estonian Music Days 2024 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 May 26, 2024 • 09:10
    May 26, 2024 • 09:10

    The opening weekend of this year’s Baltic & Estonian Music Days featured the final concert of their annual Young Composer competition, now in its tenth year. It was encouraging to witness that most rare of phenomena: the genuinely best works being the ones receiving the awards. All of the music …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic & Estonian Music Days 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 May 23, 2024 • 12:05
    May 23, 2024 • 12:05

    As i mentioned previously, this year’s combined Baltic & Estonian Music Days took place in the southern city of Tartu, due to it being one of the three 2024 European Capitals of Culture. To mark the occasion, Märt-Matis Lill composed an elaborate fanfare to herald the start of the festival, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic & Estonian Music Days 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 May 20, 2024 • 18:37
    May 20, 2024 • 18:37

    Three years ago, sitting down to watch the inaugural Baltic Music Days – an entirely online event, due to the ongoing effects of COVID – i regularly found myself wondering to what extent “Baltic music” was a phrase that held any particular meaning. i came away on that occasion feeling …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    COMMUTE 2024 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 May 9, 2024 • 16:21
    May 9, 2024 • 16:21

    Back in the heady days when I was a composition undergrad, full of that unique youthful blend of enthusiasm and arrogance, I loved student concerts. Hardly surprising really, as they were my concerts, occasions when me and my friends would present the latest fruits of our wayward whims. Nothing changed …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Forum Wallis 2024

    by 5:4 March 13, 2024 • 10:16
    March 13, 2024 • 10:16

    In recent years the Swiss music festival Forum Wallis has broken up its elements into three parts – instrumental, electronic and folk – taking place separately, in different parts of the Valais region. As last year, i just attended the instrumental performances, which took place over two days in Schloss …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 30, 2023 • 13:44
    November 30, 2023 • 13:44

    Ambient modes of expression, and listening, were brought to bear on two large-scale works during my long weekend at HCMF, both by Lithuanian composers. The less successful of the two was Hadal Zone by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, which sought to be an hour-long sonic descent into the most abyssal oceanic depths. …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 28, 2023 • 11:12
    November 28, 2023 • 11:12

    Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Music. There were times during my long weekend at this year’s HCMF when i had to keep reminding myself of this word. Performance art, and works incorporating dramatic and theatrical elements, are not just a staple of new music festivals, they’ve become in many cases tentpole …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 32

Subscribe to 5:4

World New Music Days 2025 Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • Rss
  • Mixcloud
Footer Logo

© Simon Cummings

5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Submission Contact Form