i wrote in Part 1 about the warm, inviting and relaxing atmosphere that pervaded each of the concerts at Borealis 2022. Establishing this kind of environment for audiences is vital, for two important reasons. First, because any festival that claims itself to be, as Borealis explicitly does, “for experimental music”…
Tag:
brass
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For the next work in this year’s Lent Series, i’m turning to the uniquely haunting melancholy sound of the brass band. In 2014, i wrote about Gavin Higgins‘ Three Broken Love Songs, and his more recent work Sadly Now the Throstle Sings explores the same subject matter. The title comes…
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In the last few years i’ve written about a number of pieces that languished ignored and unplayed for decades, and earlier this year another such work received its first UK performance, which was also—as far as anyone can tell—only the second time it had been heard. That fact is somewhat…
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FestivalsPremières
Proms 2013: Diana Burrell – Blaze; Edward Cowie – Earth Music I – The Great Barrier Reef (World Premières)
by 5:4Last 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 2012: Gavin Higgins – Der Aufstand; Gavin Bryars – After the Underworlds (World Premières)
by 5:4Almost two weeks ago, the Royal Albert Hall was filled with the timbrally distinctive strains of Great Britain’s National Youth Wind Orchestra and National Youth Brass Band. From a new music perspective, the concert seemed dominated by pairs: two orchestras and two conductors (James Gourlay and Bramwell Tovey), performing world…
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FestivalsPremières
Proms 2010: Stephen Montague – Wilful Chants (World Première) plus Takemitsu
by 5:4A 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…