• 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
Festivals

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 3)

by 5:4 July 4, 2025 • 09:19 0 comments

Know thyself: Turangalîla and me

by 5:4 July 2, 2025 • 11:28 2 comments

Formuls – Disorder as a function of time (from Graz to Holycross);...

by 5:4 June 28, 2025 • 08:17 0 comments
FestivalsPremières

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 2)

by 5:4 June 24, 2025 • 15:11 0 comments

Toivo Tulev – Dawn, Almost Dawn

by 5:4 June 18, 2025 • 16:16 0 comments

World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 1)

by 5:4 June 15, 2025 • 08:15 0 comments
CD/Digital releases

Erkki-Sven Tüür / Max Bruch – Violin Concertos (Hans Christian Aavik /...

by 5:4 June 4, 2025 • 09:00 0 comments

Fermata WNMD

by 5:4 May 29, 2025 • 12:00 0 comments

In memoriam Per Nørgård

by 5:4 May 28, 2025 • 16:03 3 comments
Concerts

Just Dropped In, Coventry: LEYA w/ Vanessa Bedoret

by 5:4 May 27, 2025 • 16:36 0 comments

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 3)

by 5:4 May 22, 2025 • 09:14 0 comments

Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 2)

by 5:4 May 17, 2025 • 10:01 0 comments

more articles

  • AnniversariesPremièresThematic series

    Schnittke Week – Hommage à Edvard Grieg, Symphony No. 8 (UK Première), Concerto Grosso No. 2 & (K)ein Sommernachtstraum

    by 5:4 November 26, 2010 • 07:53
    November 26, 2010 • 07:53

    The fifth and final concert featured in this Schnittke Week was broadcast on 15 January 2001, and featured the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eri Klaas. The first part of the concert opened with something of an oddity: Hommage à Edvard Grieg, composed for the 150th anniversary of Grieg’s birth …

    Read more
  • AnniversariesThematic series

    Schnittke Week – Cello Concerto No. 2 & Symphony No. 5 (Concerto Grosso No. 4)

    by 5:4 November 25, 2010 • 07:46
    November 25, 2010 • 07:46

    Today’s featured Alfred Schnittke concert was broadcast on 14 January 2001, and comprised two monumental pieces, the Cello Concerto No. 2, with Torleif Thedéen taking the solo role, and the dual-named Symphony No. 5 (Concerto Grosso No. 4); Vassily Sinaisky directs the BBC Philharmonic. More than the others, this recording …

    Read more
  • AnniversariesThematic series

    Schnittke Week – Concerto Grosso No. 6, Monologue, String Trio & Concerto for Three

    by 5:4 November 24, 2010 • 07:58
    November 24, 2010 • 07:58

    Day three of my celebration of the music of Alfred Schnittke features music from a concert focusing on works involving solo strings, broadcast on 14 January 2001. Taking centre stage are soloists Ula Ulijona (viola), Marta Sudraba (cello), and the great violinist Gidon Kremer; they’re joined by the London Sinfonietta, directed …

    Read more
  • AnniversariesPremièresThematic series

    Schnittke Week – Concerto Grosso No. 1, Fragments (World Première) & Symphony No. 4

    by 5:4 November 23, 2010 • 08:29
    November 23, 2010 • 08:29

    The second concert being featured in this week of music by Alfred Schnittke comprised two of his major compositions plus the world première of a work unfinished at his death. It took place on 13 January 2001, and was given by the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. The concert …

    Read more
  • AnniversariesThematic series

    Schnittke Week – String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3, Piano Quintet

    by 5:4 November 22, 2010 • 10:19
    November 22, 2010 • 10:19

    The coming week sees the anniversary of the birth of one of Russia’s most outstanding composers, Alfred Schnittke, born on 24 November 1934. 5:4 is therefore devoting this week to his music, focusing on works that were included in the Barbican’s ‘Seeking the Soul’ festival, in January 2001. Having kicked …

    Read more
  • Anniversaries

    Björk – The Breezeblock & Mixing It Specials

    by 5:4 November 21, 2010 • 01:00
    November 21, 2010 • 01:00

    It’s more than a little staggering to realise that today is the 45th birthday of Björk Guðmundsdóttir, an artist i’ve followed for the entirety of her solo career and continue to admire very much (one day, i hope to explore her complete output here – when i have a couple …

    Read more
  • Concerts

    St Martin’s in the Bullring, Birmingham: The Irrepressibles

    by 5:4 November 13, 2010 • 15:55
    November 13, 2010 • 15:55

    i can’t let the week come to an end without making some comment about a concert i attended last Wednesday in Birmingham. Hosted by the church of St Martin’s in the Bullring—finally getting itself really sorted as a top-notch concert venue (my ensemble Interrobang performed there back in May)—it was …

    Read more
  • Premières

    Stephen McNeff – ConcertO Duo (World Première); Kaija Saariaho – D’OM LE VRAI SENS (UK Première)

    by 5:4 November 7, 2010 • 13:37
    November 7, 2010 • 13:37

    A fortnight ago, the BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 80th birthday with a concert including a pair of premières, both concertos: one for percussion by Stephen McNeff (composed for the boisterous O Duo) and a clarinet concerto from Kaija Saariaho. McNeff instructs the orchestra to establish the mood, the first …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Ironomi – Sketch

    by 5:4 November 5, 2010 • 00:32
    November 5, 2010 • 00:32

    While stereotypes abound when discussing music emanating from the east, an acute sensitivity to the machinations and subtleties of nature seems to be an unmistakable, almost ubiquitous characteristic. This, complimented by a profound kind of simplicity, sets such music apart from the preoccupations of the west, which so often gravitate …

    Read more
  • Mixtapes

    Mixtape #18 : Hallowe’en

    by 5:4 October 30, 2010 • 23:11
    October 30, 2010 • 23:11

    Caught up as i am this Hallowe’en weekend in a flurry of horror movies, it seemed only right to make the new 5:4 mixtape suitable for the occasion. For this Hallowe’en mix, i’ve trawled my library for music that’s particularly unsettling—so don’t expect to hear ‘The Monster Mash’ or anything …

    Read more
  • Premières

    James MacMillan – Oboe Concerto (World Première)

    by 5:4 October 27, 2010 • 19:58
    October 27, 2010 • 19:58

    On 15 October, James MacMillan‘s Oboe Concerto received its first performance at Birmingham’s Town Hall, conducted by MacMillan himself. Taking the solo rôle was Nicholas Daniel, a performer who has brought numerous new oboe works to the world, usually at the more mainstream end of the contemporary spectrum. Structurally, at …

    Read more
  • Premières

    Magnus Lindberg – Al largo (UK Première)

    by 5:4 October 23, 2010 • 11:05
    October 23, 2010 • 11:05

    A little over a week ago, on 13 October, came the first UK performance of Magnus Lindberg‘s new orchestral work, Al largo, given by the London Philarmonic Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä. The title is an interesting one; as well as suggesting the musical term, associated with considerable slowness, the expression …

    Read more
  • Mixtapes

    Mystery Mixtape #1

    by 5:4 October 5, 2010 • 10:56
    October 5, 2010 • 10:56

    It’s been almost three months since the last 5:4 mixtape, so here’s a fresh one, the first in a new, occasional series of “Mystery Mixtapes”. 90 minutes of music comprising 31 tracks (well, 30 plus a snippet) and—you guessed it—you don’t get to know what they are. Go on, take …

    Read more
  • Anniversaries

    10 years on: Radiohead – Kid A

    by 5:4 October 4, 2010 • 13:11
    October 4, 2010 • 13:11

    You have to work at albums like Kid A. You have to sit at home night after night and give yourself over to the paranoid millenial atmosphere as you try to decipher elliptical snatches of lyrics and puzzle out how the titles […] might refer to the songs. In other …

    Read more
  • Premières

    Vale of Glamorgan Festival: World Premières by Arvo Pärt and Arlene Sierra

    by 5:4 October 3, 2010 • 12:10
    October 3, 2010 • 12:10

    On 9 September, a concert given at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste, was for the most part concerned with the music of Arvo Pärt, featuring a new work commissioned by the …

    Read more
  • ConcertsPremières

    Purcell Room, London: Tim Benjamin and Francis Poulenc

    by 5:4 September 26, 2010 • 11:29
    September 26, 2010 • 11:29

    Last Thursday i journeyed to London for a small-scale concert at the Purcell Room. On paper, the concert was being given by the ensemble Radius, but in practice only the pianist was present, supporting a quartet of singers. i’ll admit to being disappointed about that; i’ve not encountered Radius before, …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Flawless, stratospheric pinnacles: The Birthday Massacre – Pins and Needles

    by 5:4 September 24, 2010 • 21:19
    September 24, 2010 • 21:19

    While the majority of contemporary rock—regardless of what prefix it’s given—tends to pass me by as so much generic, posturing fluff, inject a healthy, industrial-strength jolt of electronics through it, and i’m very much more inclined to sit up and pay attention. Such music’s just as capable of factory-line posing …

    Read more
  • Anniversaries

    25 years on: a-ha – Take On Me

    by 5:4 September 21, 2010 • 15:10
    September 21, 2010 • 15:10

    This week marks the 25th anniversary of, in my view, one of the finest pop songs ever recorded: “Take On Me” by a-ha. It could be argued that the release of “Take On Me” marked a turning point for pop, which had spent the preceding years mooching around in New …

    Read more
  • CD/Digital releases

    Aching with exuberance: of Montreal – False Priest

    by 5:4 September 18, 2010 • 12:18
    September 18, 2010 • 12:18

    My first encounter with of Montreal‘s 2008 album Skeletal Lamping was a bewildering experience. For anyone unfamiliar with it, its apparent 15 tracks are nothing but a ruse; in fact, there are many more than that, the album lurching between portions of song, seeking neither clarity nor indeed coherence. On …

    Read more
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2010: Jonathan Dove – A Song of Joys (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 12, 2010 • 08:41
    September 12, 2010 • 08:41

    i think Tom Service put it best, a few years ago, when he described the Last Night of the Proms as a “calcified cadaver”. It is, there’s no question: beneath the merriment and the klaxons lies an occasion that died many, many years ago; it’s a concert in aspic, filled …

    Read more
  • 1
  • …
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • …
  • 80

Subscribe to 5:4

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