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more articles

  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Arvo Pärt – Symphony No. 4 ‘Los Angeles’ (UK Première) plus Mosolov

    by 5:4 August 26, 2010 • 18:07
    August 26, 2010 • 18:07 2 minutes read

    Last Friday evening’s Prom concert, given by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, brought to the UK Arvo Pärt‘s first symphony in almost four decades: his fourth, subtitled (with both geographical and theological connotations) ‘Los Angeles’. However, before Pärt’s work—in an imaginative, even provocative bit of concert programming—came a short …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: James Dillon – La navette (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 25, 2010 • 20:34
    August 25, 2010 • 20:34 1 minutes read

    As far back as 1988, in his seminal essay on what was, at the time, laughingly called ‘the New Complexity’, Richard Toop described the Scottish composer James Dillon—even within that narrow niche—as an ‘outsider’. Over two decades on, in Dillon’s sixtieth year, little as changed; he remains relatively unknown within …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Huw Watkins – Violin Concerto (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 23, 2010 • 12:15
    August 23, 2010 • 12:15 1 minutes read

    Tuesday 17 August’s Proms concert brought the world première of Huw Watkins‘ Violin Concerto, the second new violin concerto heard this season. The opening movement sets a commanding tone, its fast tempo instigated by the solo violin, surrounded by pointillistic contributions from winds and upper strings, firmly drummed in place …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Tarik O’Regan – Latent Manifest; Alissa Firsova – Bach Allegro (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 23, 2010 • 10:20
    August 23, 2010 • 10:20 2 minutes read

    For this year’s Proms, Saturday 14 August was designated “Bach Day”, and buried beneath all the BWVs were two new works, by Tarik O’Regan and Alissa Firsova, both works described as ‘arrangements’. O’Regan’s approach, as he saw it, was to tease out ‘hidden’ musical lines within the opening movement of …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Stephen Montague – Wilful Chants (World Première) plus Takemitsu

    by 5:4 August 22, 2010 • 11:29
    August 22, 2010 • 11:29 2 minutes read

    A world première from Stephen Montague is always an exciting prospect; while hardly an avant-garde figure, he’s highly unpredictable, and one imagines neither the BBC nor the audience could have envisaged what Montague would ultimately present them with in his new work Wilful Chants, given its first performance by the …

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2010: Julian Anderson – Fantasias (London Première)

    by 5:4 August 22, 2010 • 09:05
    August 22, 2010 • 09:05 1 minutes read

    Saturday 7 August’s Proms concert saw the first London performance of Julian Anderson‘s 25-minute Fantasias, a work the National Youth Orchestra has been playing around the country for the last few days, all under the direction of Semyon Bychkov. It’s a work in five movements, the first of which puts …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Hans Abrahamsen – Wald (UK Première) plus Knussen, Bedford and Benjamin

    by 5:4 August 20, 2010 • 11:56
    August 20, 2010 • 11:56 1 minutes read

    So, where were we? Ah yes, The Proms; my catchup starts with the concert that took place on Friday 6 August, given by the splendid Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Oliver Knussen‘s Two Organa is a work all the more engaging for its entirely lopsided nature. The first ‘organum’, “Notre Dame …

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  • Announcements

    Fermata

    by 5:4 August 6, 2010 • 22:16
    August 6, 2010 • 22:16 0 minutes read

    Two weeks’ holiday are beckoning, so there’ll be no further posts until i return. The Proms premières will all be recorded in my absence (tonight’s concert is being recorded as i write these words), so expect a series of posts catching up in late August. Meanwhile, as ever, enjoy the …

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2010: George Benjamin – Duet (London Première)

    by 5:4 August 2, 2010 • 21:06
    August 2, 2010 • 21:06 1 minutes read

    Another day, another première—this time, it was the first London performance of George Benjamin‘s Duet, for piano and orchestra. In the solo rôle is the unsurpassable Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and he precedes Benjamin’s work with a rendition of György Ligeti‘s “Mesto, rigido e ceremoniale”, the second piece from his enthralling Musica …

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2010: Brett Dean – Amphitheatre (London Première)

    by 5:4 July 30, 2010 • 20:01
    July 30, 2010 • 20:01 1 minutes read

    Tonight’s Prom concert opened with another London première, Amphitheatre by the Australian composer Brett Dean, who won last year’s prestigious Grawemeyer Prize. The work was composed a decade ago, and appropriately enough was presented this evening by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by the effervescent Mark Elder. The clarity of …

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2010: Colin Matthews – Violin Concerto (London Première) plus Stockhausen, Birtwistle, Bedford and Zimmermann

    by 5:4 July 28, 2010 • 21:44
    July 28, 2010 • 21:44 1 minutes read

    Tonight’s Proms première found itself nestling among an assortment of contemporary works, each vying for attention. Given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen’s direction, the concert opened with Stockhausen‘s 1977 work Jubilee, a 16-minute work hysterically described by some as an ‘overture’ (!!). Of course, it’s nothing of …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Simon Holt – a table of noises (London & World Premières)

    by 5:4 July 26, 2010 • 21:16
    July 26, 2010 • 21:16 2 minutes read

    This evening’s Proms première came from the pen of one of England’s most intriguing and engaging composers, Simon Holt. Holt’s music betrays little of the generic English sound that plagues so many of the ‘established’ (i.e. published) composers in this land—there’s no trace of the anodyne ‘Faber sound’ here. On …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Hypnotising, confounding, beautiful: Chubby Wolf – Ornitheology

    by 5:4 July 25, 2010 • 16:07
    July 25, 2010 • 16:07 2 minutes read

    On 8 July – the anniversary of Danielle Baquet-Long‘s death – in a rather lovely coincidence, her first posthumous release, Ornitheology, landed on my doormat. That was the standard edition, released in a typically short run of 125 copies by Digitalis—by now, of course, very sold out. Yesterday, the special …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Gunther Schuller – Where the Word Ends (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 20, 2010 • 21:15
    July 20, 2010 • 21:15 2 minutes read

    At tonight’s Proms, almost a year-and-a-half after its world première, Gunther Schuller‘s Where the Word Ends finally found its way to England. It came in the hands of the splendid WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, in his farewell concert with the orchestra he’s faithfully served …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Dragonette – new single: Our Summer Volcano

    by 5:4 July 20, 2010 • 20:00
    July 20, 2010 • 20:00 1 minutes read

    Canada’s most exciting electronic pop outfit Dragonette are putting out their first release of 2010 in a week’s time, a single titled “Our Summer Volcano”. The partial title track, “Our Summer”, is an audaciously addictive anthemic floor stomper, perfect for summer parties where it’s destined to send people out of …

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  • Premières

    Gigs, gigs, gigs: Proms 2010 / Claude Vivier – Orion (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 18, 2010 • 13:45
    July 18, 2010 • 13:45 1 minutes read

    The Proms season is upon us once again, bringing with it the lively hope of new commissions and world premières. However, a cursory glance at the concert season makes for rather damp reading, the commissions going to an unadventurous gaggle including Mark-Anthony Turnage, David Matthews, Graham Fitkin, Jonathan Dove and …

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  • Podcasts

    Podcast #2: Dawn Chorus, 24 May 2010

    by 5:4 July 17, 2010 • 00:22
    July 17, 2010 • 00:22 1 minutes read

    The new 5:4 podcast is a presentation of a field recording i made of the dawn chorus, a couple of months ago. The recording was made at Lower Woods Nature Reserve, about which a little more can be read/seen via the following links: Gloucestershire Wildlife Trusts Wikipedia Geograph (it was …

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  • AnniversariesMixtapes

    Mixtape #17 : Lay the Voice to Rest, Dear Mist (In Memoriam Danielle Baquet-Long)

    by 5:4 July 8, 2010 • 00:12
    July 8, 2010 • 00:12 2 minutes read

    How quickly a year passes. On this day, 12 months ago, Danielle Baquet-Long died, bringing to an abrupt end the remarkable musical project that she and husband Will had crafted together for several years. Of course, music, like life, goes on regardless, and the prospect of plenty more releases yet …

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  • ConcertsPremières

    Interrobang: Steve Peters – The Webster Cycles

    by 5:4 July 3, 2010 • 16:49
    July 3, 2010 • 16:49 1 minutes read

    Two months ago, i reported that my ensemble, Interrobang, was to perform Steve Peters‘ remarkable ambient work, The Webster Cycles. It’s a work that’s entranced me since 2008, when it was released on CD, more than 25 years after its original composition date. It gets its name from the fact …

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  • Miscellaneous

    Street Sounds special (BBC 6 Music)

    by 5:4 June 23, 2010 • 16:46
    June 23, 2010 • 16:46 2 minutes read

    Last Sunday, the ill-fated BBC 6 Music broadcast a two-hour special focusing on the legendary Street Sounds label. The special is presented by Dave Pearce, in conversation with the persistently energetic Morgan Khan, who founded Street Sounds in the early 1980s, and is responsible for bringing so much early hip-hop, …

    Read more
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    • 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
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    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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