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Premières

  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Anna Clyne – Masquerade (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 9, 2013 • 16:24
    September 9, 2013 • 16:24

    All good things etc., and this year it fell to composer Anna Clyne—and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop—to get underway the biggest party-masquerading-as-a-concert of them all, the Last Night of the Proms. In calling her short work Masquerade, Clyne is presumably alluding chiefly to the carnival atmosphere …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Peter Eötvös – DoReMi (UK Première)

    by 5:4 September 7, 2013 • 15:19
    September 7, 2013 • 15:19

    The penultimate première of this year’s Proms almost didn’t happen last Thursday, when two of the trio of percussionists failed to turn up, resulting in seven or eight rather tense minutes while presumably a host of minions dashed about behind the scenes attempting to find and drag them onstage. It …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Charlotte Seither – Language of Leaving (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 3, 2013 • 16:48
    September 3, 2013 • 16:48

    What is this “I”: is it my physical presence, is it the temporality in which I stand and pass away, is there an independence of my thoughts from that which I am, or is my entire being merely a fiction of me myself? This metaphysical conundrum is the starting point …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Param Vir – Cave of Luminous Mind (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 28, 2013 • 21:09
    August 28, 2013 • 21:09

    Last Wednesday’s world première of Param Vir‘s new Proms commission, Cave of Luminous Mind, gave particular pause for thought in light of its position in the season. Twice recently we have been presented by works from composers of Indian descent (Nishat Khan and Naresh Sohal), works seeking at least in …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: John Woolrich / Tansy Davies – Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 26, 2013 • 15:23
    August 26, 2013 • 15:23

    Last Saturday’s Proms matinee focused on a work created 60 years ago to mark the Queen’s coronation. Instigated by Benjamin Britten, he and five other composers each wrote a variation for string orchestra based on the Irish tune ‘Sellenger’s Round’; titled Variations on an Elizabethan Theme, the complete suite was …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Frederic Rzewski – Piano Concerto (World Première); Gerald Barry – No other people. (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 20, 2013 • 11:30
    August 20, 2013 • 11:30

    Prophets, visionaries, seers, they’re an acquired taste, are they not? Often they get relegated to an idealistic niche characterised as “head in the clouds”—yet a more careful survey reveals that most luminaries are among the most earthly-wise and practical of people. This difficult-to-digest paradox coloured much of the music at …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Sofia Gubaidulina – The Rider on the White Horse (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 19, 2013 • 20:42
    August 19, 2013 • 20:42

    The beauty and diversity of nature has been a recurring theme in this year’s new music at the Proms, whereas religious sentiment has been entirely absent—until, that is, last Tuesday’s performance of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s The Rider on the White Horse. Culled and reworked from her 2002 oratorio St John Easter …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Nishat Khan/Pete Stacey – The Gate of the Moon (Sitar Concerto No. 1) (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 15, 2013 • 18:10
    August 15, 2013 • 18:10

    It’s interesting to be considering the next Proms première in the wake of having seen, last night, Bollywood’s latest blockbuster offering, Chennai Express. Bollywood’s glory—and at its best, that is definitely the right word—is in its uniquely convoluted appropriation and reinvention of western tropes, served in a form that, to …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Harrison Birtwistle – The Moth Requiem (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 13, 2013 • 17:54
    August 13, 2013 • 17:54

    On the one hand, the BBC’s decision not to provide online programme notes in any form for this year’s Prom concerts is as hard to understand as it is unequivocally idiotic. On the other hand, it forces listeners to engage with music on its own terms, without the cosy couch …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Mark-Anthony Turnage – Frieze (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 13, 2013 • 12:00
    August 13, 2013 • 12:00

    It’s rare for the Proms not to feature music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (he’s only been absent from five of the last twenty seasons), and this year’s commission comes from the Royal Philharmonic Society, requesting a work to sit alongside their most famous commission, the climactically hysterical behemoth that is Beethoven’s …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Diana Burrell – Blaze; Edward Cowie – Earth Music I – The Great Barrier Reef (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 10, 2013 • 11:52
    August 10, 2013 • 11:52

    Last Monday saw a world première at each of the day’s Prom concerts. Having recently returned from Norway myself, the afternoon concert in Cadogan Hall was especially welcome, featuring the Norwegian brass group tenThing, led by Tine Thing Helseth; for them Diana Burrell had composed a new work, Blaze. The …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Naresh Sohal – The Cosmic Dance (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 5, 2013 • 20:28
    August 5, 2013 • 20:28

    One of the most striking things about several of this year’s Proms commissions is their scale, with three works of over 40 minutes’ duration. Thomas Adès’ Totentanz was the first, and the second—The Cosmic Dance by the Punjab-born British composer Naresh Sohal—received its first performance last Friday by the Royal …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Philip Glass – Symphony No. 10 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 2, 2013 • 20:00
    August 2, 2013 • 20:00

    In previous years, some readers will have noticed that there have always been a few Proms premières about which i haven’t written. Jazz-related works, being somewhat removed from my zone of interest and expertise, are ignored, along with re-discovered works from many decades ago (e.g. Britten’s Elegy for strings, receiving …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Colin Matthews – Turning Point (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 1, 2013 • 18:31
    August 1, 2013 • 18:31

    Having hitherto bewailed the fact that more challenging composers (Finnissy, Lachenmann et al.) are kept at bay from the Proms for decade after decade, last Monday’s new work came from Colin Matthews, a composer almost wildly over-represented at the festival; Matthews’ new work, Turning Point, was the 22nd of his …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: John McCabe – Joybox (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 31, 2013 • 11:46
    July 31, 2013 • 11:46

    Last Thursday’s Prom saw the world première of a piece that went through no little trial to be completed. While working on Joybox, with only 40 bars remaining to be composed, John McCabe was struck down with a brain tumour; for many people that would be that, for the time …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Sean Shepherd – Magiya (European Première)

    by 5:4 July 30, 2013 • 20:03
    July 30, 2013 • 20:03

    Just over a week ago, the Proms was introduced to a brand new orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, bringing to an end their inaugural concert tour. Having come via Moscow and St Petersburg with Valery Gergiev at the helm, and with works by Tchaikovsky …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Thomas Adès – Totentanz (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 18, 2013 • 00:00
    July 18, 2013 • 00:00

    Hot on the heels of the large-scale work of Helmut Lachenmann’s a few days ago, tonight’s Proms première was even more ambitious, Thomas Adès‘ Totentanz. Composed for a large orchestra with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, Adès has set to music a sequence of German verses known as the Lübecker Totentanz, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: David Matthews – A Vision of the Sea (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 17, 2013 • 17:12
    July 17, 2013 • 17:12

    Down the road in my old stamping ground of Cheltenham, there’s an art exhibition regularly to be found in the town’s sumptuous Imperial Gardens. The exhibition is for those with an urge to put paintbrush to canvas, resulting in a desultory cluster of dog portraits, depictions of Cotswold stone houses …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Helmut Lachenmann – Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 16, 2013 • 13:02
    July 16, 2013 • 13:02

    There is, it seems to me, a distinct sense of double-edged sword to the territorial (as opposed to world) premières that feature in each year’s Proms. It’s encouraging, of course, that such fascinating works are introduced to British audiences, but many’s the time one can’t help wondering why on earth …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Julian Anderson – Harmony (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 13, 2013 • 08:34
    July 13, 2013 • 08:34

    Last night the 2013 Proms season began, as it now always does, with a world première from a mainstream composer. At the outset, i have to admit to a certain lack of enthusiasm for the occasion, due both to the recent track record of the opening night (Turnage and Weir …

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