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Announcements

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Fermata Ultima

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Proms 2023: the premières (Part 4)

by 5:4 September 15, 2023 • 13:37 1 comment
CD/Digital releases

Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Atmospheriques Vol. I

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Natasha Barrett – Reconfiguring the Landscape

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Proms 2023: the premières (Part 3)

by 5:4 August 30, 2023 • 16:20 0 comment
Announcements

Gloria Coates, 1933-2023

by 5:4 August 19, 2023 • 09:55 1 comment

Proms 2023: the premières (Part 2)

by 5:4 August 15, 2023 • 12:45 1 comment

Proms 2023: the premières (Part 1)

by 5:4 July 29, 2023 • 13:07 4 comments
Concerts

Salzburg Festival 2023 / SWR Symphony Orchestra, Ingo Metzmacher: Messiaen – Éclairs...

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Fermata Austria

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Joan Magrané – Madrigal

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more articles

  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesCD/Digital releases

    Ligeti at 100

    by 5:4 May 28, 2023 • 05:00
    May 28, 2023 • 05:00 1 minutes read

    Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of György Ligeti, one of the 20th century’s most significant and consistently engaging composers. i’ve been spending time lately with three new releases that together present an excellent overview of Ligeti’s output, from the perspectives of his music for piano, choir and …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 May 23, 2023 • 11:53
    May 23, 2023 • 11:53 1 minutes read

    Surely the most completely abstract music i heard at this year’s Estonian Music Days was Blue Moon Station by Latvian composer Alise Rancāne. The piece involved all six members of the Ensemble of the Estonian Electronic Music Society (EMA) huddled around a computer keyboard playing a video game projected on …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 May 20, 2023 • 15:19
    May 20, 2023 • 15:19 2 minutes read

    In previous accounts of my annual pilgrimage to Eesti Muusika Päevad, the Estonian Music Days, i’ve tended to remark on the festival’s insistence on a theme, usually in regard to how innocuous or irrelevant it seemed in relation to the actual concerts. This year, the Tallinn portion of the festival …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Éliane Radigue – Occam Delta XV

    by 5:4 May 12, 2023 • 10:42
    May 12, 2023 • 10:42 2 minutes read

    You would think, by now, i’d be getting the hang of this piece. Éliane Radigue‘s Occam Delta XV, conceived for the Bozzini Quartet, has crossed my path on a couple of occasions, first at its UK première in Huddersfield in 2018, a performance that i subsequently explored in more depth, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Forum Wallis 2023 update

    by 5:4 May 9, 2023 • 11:12
    May 9, 2023 • 11:12 2 minutes read

    An occupational hazard with writing about music festivals is the inability of readers to be able to experience any of the music for themselves. However, in the case of this year’s Forum Wallis festival, three of the most interesting performances have been uploaded to Javier Hagen and Ulrike Mayer-Spohn‘s YouTube …

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  • Announcements

    Fermata Eesti

    by 5:4 April 26, 2023 • 05:00
    April 26, 2023 • 05:00 0 minutes read

    My annual pilgrimage to Eesti Muusika Paevad, the Estonian Music Days, begins today. i’ll be in Tallinn for the next ten days, immersing myself in all the goings-on, and all being well i’ll also be recording a new 5:4 Dialogue while i’m there. Words aplenty once i get back.

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 April 25, 2023 • 08:06
    April 25, 2023 • 08:06 2 minutes read

    Very few performances at Only Connect 2023 failed to impress. Among the exceptions was Caminante by Michael Pisaro, premièred on the opening night by Trondheim Sinfonietta with bassist Michael Francis Duch. Though the work began well, establishing a nicely darkened texture that became almost gritty and dirty, as soon as …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 April 22, 2023 • 09:57
    April 22, 2023 • 09:57 1 minutes read

    There can’t be many festivals that have as their name a direct command to the audience: Only Connect. This was my third time at Norway’s Only Connect festival, held this year in Trondheim, and each time i’ve attended there’s been a keen emphasis on the importance and necessity, from compositional, …

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  • Announcements

    Gigs, gigs, gigs: Proms 2023

    by 5:4 April 21, 2023 • 08:58
    April 21, 2023 • 08:58 1 minutes read

    For those of you who still retain an interest – or even a smattering of excitement – for what the Proms festival has to offer, here’s a summary of the contemporary music that’ll be served up this year. No comment from me, except to say that, having explored all of …

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  • Announcements

    Fermata Connect

    by 5:4 April 13, 2023 • 07:00
    April 13, 2023 • 07:00 0 minutes read

    i’m setting off today for the city of Trondheim, to experience the delights of this year’s Only Connect festival. Oodles of words to come once i get back next week.

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesBlasts from the Past

    Blasts From the Past: Rued Langgaard – Symphony No. 1

    by 5:4 April 10, 2023 • 08:58
    April 10, 2023 • 08:58 1 minutes read

    110 years ago today, something extraordinary took place in Berlin. During the previous few years, the young Danish composer Rued Langgaard had been working on his first symphony. He began it in early 1908, at the age of 14, and completed it the following year, though he continued revising the …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 11 “Philemon und Baucis” (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 7, 2023 • 09:37
    April 7, 2023 • 09:37 2 minutes read

    i’m bringing this year’s Lent Series to a close with another of Gloria Coates‘ remarkable symphonies. Symphony No. 11 was completed in 1999, being a response to a commission from Baron von Freyberg for the Festspiele Europäische Wochen, with the stipulation that the work should be related to Ovid’s recounting …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Peter Maxwell Davies – Antarctic Symphony (Symphony No. 8) (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 3, 2023 • 10:18
    April 3, 2023 • 10:18 1 minutes read

    On 14 January 1953, Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica – a symphony derived from his 1948 film score for Scott of the Antarctic – was premièred in Manchester. In the audience that evening was Peter Maxwell Davies who, in 1997, was commissioned by the British Antarctic Survey to create a 50th …

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  • Killing My Darlings

    Killing My Darlings: A Lenten Prayer (1995)

    by 5:4 March 31, 2023 • 10:11
    March 31, 2023 • 10:11 1 minutes read

    A Lenten Prayer for SATB choir was completed on 17 February 1995. My first choral work, it was commissioned by the local cathedral to be performed as the introit at a service marking the beginning of Lent. As such, the text i used was a paraphrase of Isaiah 58, verse …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Luc van Hove – Symphony No. 4 (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 29, 2023 • 09:06
    March 29, 2023 • 09:06 2 minutes read

    Belgian composer Luc van Hove has, to date, completed four symphonies. The first two (available on a double CD from Megadisc Classics) present a musical attitude that doesn’t just embrace extremes of aggression and tenderness but also moves between them quickly. The first movement of Symphony No. 1 (1989) is …

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  • Lent Series

    Ester Mägi – Symphony

    by 5:4 March 24, 2023 • 05:00
    March 24, 2023 • 05:00 2 minutes read

    Despite being one of Estonia’s foremost composers, Ester Mägi‘s reputation is pretty negligible outside the borders of her native land. It’s a situation that, thus far, hasn’t changed since her death in 2021, at the age of 99. My own contact with her music, despite the extent to which i’ve …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Forum Wallis 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 March 22, 2023 • 08:23
    March 22, 2023 • 08:23 2 minutes read

    The most entertaining event at Forum Wallis 2023 was ‘Adventurous Sounds’, a concert billed as being “New Music for and with children” as part of a project aimed at introducing contemporary music to young people, which also extends to in-school activities. One of the most hilarious compositions i’ve ever heard, …

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  • Lent Series

    Galina Ustvolskaya – Symphony No. 1

    by 5:4 March 20, 2023 • 09:09
    March 20, 2023 • 09:09 1 minutes read

    None of Galina Ustvolskaya‘s five symphonies are particularly well-known. That’s also true for most of her output, but it’s particularly true of the symphonies, which are rarely performed and even more rarely recorded. Her First Symphony is perhaps the most obscure of them all. Composed in 1955, the work is …

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  • Killing My Darlings

    Killing My Darlings: Suite for solo violin (1995)

    by 5:4 March 18, 2023 • 09:59
    March 18, 2023 • 09:59 1 minutes read

    My Suite for solo violin was completed on 17 January 1995. It took the form of a 13-minute theme and variations, based on a song called ‘Ich bin der Doktor Eisenbart‘ (which i found in an anthology of German student songs), though the theme appeared at the end rather than …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Forum Wallis 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 March 16, 2023 • 09:34
    March 16, 2023 • 09:34 1 minutes read

    It doesn’t take long to get the measure of a new music festival – aims, outlook, characteristics – but that doesn’t mean it becomes predictable. i’ve found this to be more than usually true of Forum Wallis, which remains one of the most remote festivals i’ve had the pleasure of …

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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
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