• About
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Complete list of ratings
    • Compositions reviewed 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
Tag:

concerto

  • CD/Digital releases

    Annelien Van Wauwe – Flow

    by 5:4 June 20, 2022 • 15:59
    June 20, 2022 • 15:59

    Flow is the title of a new album featuring Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe wielding the less common basset clarinet. Invented in the 1770s by Theodor Lotz (who had previously created the basset horn), the purpose of the instrument was in part to extend the lower range of the clarinet.…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Xiaogang Ye – Mount E’mei; Winter; The Song of the Earth

    by 5:4 August 20, 2021 • 00:00
    August 20, 2021 • 00:00

    Five years ago i was getting excited by an album of orchestral music by a Chinese composer previously unknown to me, Xiaogang Ye. That excitement has been rekindled recently by the coincidentally-timed release of three new albums of Ye’s music in the last few weeks, which together provide an excellent…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    The Brandenburg Project

    by 5:4 June 7, 2021 • 11:21
    June 7, 2021 • 11:21

    Three years ago, the Proms festival featured the first complete performance of The Brandenburg Project, a large-scale undertaking by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, who commissioned six composers to write a work responding to one of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, with the aim that they should ideally also use the…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic Music Days 2021, Estonia (Part 2)

    by 5:4 June 2, 2021 • 05:00
    June 2, 2021 • 05:00

    Despite its name, it’s important to note that not everything performed at this year’s inaugural Baltic Music Days originated in the Baltic (though all of the performers did). Among the most striking of the international pieces was Spur by Austrian composer Beat Furrer. Composed in 1998, it was especially interesting…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Olga Neuwirth – …miramondo multiplo…

    by 5:4 May 20, 2020 • 05:00
    May 20, 2020 • 05:00

    It’s always nice when music you’ve encountered in a previous context finds its way onto disc. That’s true of two of the three works on the latest CD of Olga Neuwirth‘s music, released by Kairos. i first heard Neuwirth’s viola concerto Remnants of Songs … an Amphigory during the 2012…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2020 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 February 5, 2020 • 06:00
    February 5, 2020 • 06:00

    It no doubt goes without saying that Iceland’s Dark Music Days festival is primarily named for the fact that it takes place in January, when the amount of daylight the country receives is minimal. In a less literal sense, though, musically speaking there’s a lot to be said for listening…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2019: Jocelyn Pook – You Need to Listen to Us; Alissa Firsova – Red Fox; Ryan Wigglesworth – Piano Concerto (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 29, 2019 • 16:53
    August 29, 2019 • 16:53

    A few weeks back, when critiquing Hans Zimmer’s short work Earth, i almost held back from writing about the piece as it was taking place in a concert for children. i couldn’t help wondering to what extent it was fair to hold up something so intentionally superficial to critical scrutiny.…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2019: Dieter Ammann – Piano Concerto (“Gran Toccata”) (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 23, 2019 • 13:05
    August 23, 2019 • 13:05

    None of the premières so far at this year’s Proms has left me with a more conflicted first impression than Dieter Ammann‘s new Piano Concerto, given its first performance on Monday by Andreas Haefliger with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. The basis for that reaction is wrapped…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2019: Peter Eötvös – Alhambra; Tobias Broström – Nigredo: Dark Night of the Soul (UK Premières)

    by 5:4 July 30, 2019 • 17:23
    July 30, 2019 • 17:23

    The last two premières at the Proms have both been concertos: Alhambra, the third violin concerto by Peter Eötvös, and Nigredo: Dark Night of the Soul, a double-trumpet concerto by Swedish composer Tobias Broström. It’s been interesting to note how their overall approach to narrative is, at a fundamental level…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Esa-Pekka Salonen – Cello Concerto

    by 5:4 July 15, 2019 • 16:27
    July 15, 2019 • 16:27

    One of my highlights from last year came at the end of the summer, during the final concert at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm. An occasion given over to celebrating composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (which i reviewed elsewhere), the concert included a performance of Salonen’s Cello Concerto given…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • PremièresThematic series

    Estonia in focus weekend: Erkki-Sven Tüür – Prophecy (UK Première)

    by 5:4 October 28, 2018 • 05:00
    October 28, 2018 • 05:00

    Another of the works at the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Maida Vale concert of Estonian music on 4 July was Erkki-Sven Tüür‘s 2007 accordion concerto Prophecy, which received its first UK performance with Olari Elts conducting and Mika Väyrynen (for whom it was written) as soloist. Any composer who writes a…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Iain Bell – Aurora; Nina Šenk – Baca (World Premières)

    by 5:4 September 7, 2018 • 11:48
    September 7, 2018 • 11:48

    The interplay of performing relationships has been at the centre of the last two Proms premières. Iain Bell’s Aurora, a concerto for coloratura soprano and orchestra, given its first performance on 29 August by Adela Zaharia and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko, seeks to pit the soloist as…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Per Nørgård – Symphony No. 3 (UK Première); Rolf Wallin – WHIRLD; Bushra El-Turk – Crème Brûlée on a Tree (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 29, 2018 • 12:51
    August 29, 2018 • 12:51

    Quite apart from anything else they may embody, this year’s Proms premières have occupied pretty much the entire span of the profound—trivial continuum. At its most extreme, this has been exemplified by the most recent new works, which have ranged from a compositional exploration of infinity culminating in a state…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Erkki-Sven Tüür – Illuminatio/Whistle and Whispers from Uluru/Symphony No. 8, Arvo Pärt & Alfred Schnittke – Choral Works, Arvo Pärt – The Symphonies

    by 5:4 August 24, 2018 • 16:35
    August 24, 2018 • 16:35

    Returning to one of my occasional themes, there have been some interesting releases of Estonian music in the last few months. In February, i wrote about the Ninth Symphony by one of the country’s most dynamic composers, Erkki-Sven Tüür, so it’s nice timing that the Ondine label has brought out…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Philip Venables – Venables Plays Bartók; Laura Mvula – Love Like A Lion (World Premières); Agata Zubel – Fireworks (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 22, 2018 • 06:00
    August 22, 2018 • 06:00

    The last few Proms premières have been, to put it mildly, an extremely mixed bag. By far the most excruciating of them was Venables Plays Bartók, a violin concerto of sorts by Philip Venables, given its first performance last Friday by Pekka Kuusisto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo. As its title…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: The Brandenburg Project

    by 5:4 August 14, 2018 • 15:05
    August 14, 2018 • 15:05

    The Proms wouldn’t be the Proms if it didn’t feature one of its favourite obsessions: contemporary music commissioned with the specific aim that it ‘responds’ to existing works in the repertoire. The most recent example of this is The Brandenburg Project, an idea dreamt up by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Tansy Davies – What Did We See?; Jessica Wells – Rhapsody for solo oud; Joby Talbot – Ink Dark Moon (World Premières); Georg Friedrich Haas – Concerto Grosso No. 1 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 5, 2018 • 13:01
    August 5, 2018 • 13:01

    Every year the nature of the works premièred at the Proms – presumably due in part to the festival’s (i.e. the BBC’s) risk-averse emphasis on popularity and familiarity over challenge and provocation – veers wildly between extremes of light- and heavyweight fare. The most recent quartet of new works, considered…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – Alba (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 23, 2018 • 12:47
    March 23, 2018 • 12:47

    As i’ve noted in previous articles in this Lent series, there are very strong and clear themes and interests – obsessions, even – running through Rebecca Saunders‘ music, with concomitant aspects of overlap and even tautology from work to work. In this respect, Saunders’ entire output can be heard as the…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – still (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2018 • 15:17
    March 13, 2018 • 15:17

    The next piece i’m looking at in my Lent Series celebrating the music of Rebecca Saunders is something of an exception on 5:4, as it’s a work i’ve written about before. Saunders’ violin concerto still dates from 2011, and i explored the piece six years ago, following its first UK…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2017: Brian Elias – Cello Concerto (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 11, 2017 • 21:14
    August 11, 2017 • 21:14

    Around a month ago, i bumped into Brian Elias at the Cheltenham Music Festival, and we had a brief chat about his forthcoming Cello Concerto, premièred a couple of nights ago at the Proms. As i mentioned in my article with his pre-première questions, he expressed some reservations about including…

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

Join 2,123 other subscribers.

Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Rss
  • Mixcloud
Footer Logo

© 2008-2022 Simon Cummings

5:4
  • About
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Complete list of ratings
    • Compositions reviewed 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