• 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
Tag:

Germany

  • CD/Digital releases

    Erkki-Sven Tüür / Max Bruch – Violin Concertos (Hans Christian Aavik / Odense Symphony Orchestra / Gemma New)

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

    Hot on the heels of the recent Estonian Music Days, there have been several interesting new releases of Estonian music. Among them is a new recording of Violin Concerto No. 2 “Angel’s Share” by one of the country’s most accessible composers, Erkki-Sven Tüür, featuring soloist Hans Christian Aavik with the …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2025 (Part 2)

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

    Two concerts of special interest that happen each year during the Estonian Music Days are those focusing on works by student composers. One of these took place in Tartu, at the Heino Eller Music School, being the final concert of the 2025 Young Composer competition. The requirements on this occasion …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 5)

    by 5:4 March 28, 2025 • 12:06
    March 28, 2025 • 12:06

    One of the most fascinating events at this year’s Musica Nova festival was LOKS – four concerts at once. Not so much a performance as a film juxtaposing and compositing four separate performances, it featured music by four composers whose initials form the title: Lauri Supponen, Oene val Geel, Krists …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 March 22, 2025 • 09:26
    March 22, 2025 • 09:26

    Some of the most memorable performances at this year’s Musica Nova festival were of vocal works. The concert given by the Vicentino Singers was powerful not simply because of the abilities of the singers, but due to their size. Being a sextet, the level of intimacy they established was considerable; …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 March 13, 2025 • 12:32
    March 13, 2025 • 12:32

    Being the risky, aspiringly cutting edge things that they are, contemporary music festivals always tend to be a bit hit and miss. Very little i heard at Musica Nova 2025 fell into the latter category, but there were a few pieces that slipped through the quality net, being memorable for …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Musica Nova 2025 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 February 26, 2025 • 10:08
    February 26, 2025 • 10:08

    i’ve commented before on my general disinterest, and usual disregard, for music festival themes. Musica Nova, Helsinki’s biennial new music extravaganza, opted for ‘together’ as its theme this year, and while that word is sufficiently vague as to have almost no meaning, there were numerous times when that word insinuated …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • Advent Calendar

    J. S. Bach (arr. Eller / Kerikmäe) – Adagissimo

    by 5:4 December 14, 2024 • 06:00
    December 14, 2024 • 06:00

    One of the most incredible – and entirely unexpected – performances i’ve heard this year took place in Tartu University Museum in April, at a recital given by Estonian duo Anna-Liisa Eller and Taavi Kerikmäe. These two, in their combinations of kannel, keyboard instruments and electronics, exploring both contemporary and …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 20, 2024 • 11:56
    November 20, 2024 • 11:56

    As i mentioned previously, the majority of this year’s AFEKT was focused on solo performers – primarily members of Ensemble Musikfabrik – with or without electronics, and these proved to be the strongest events of the festival.

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Enno Poppe – Prozession

    by 5:4 December 22, 2023 • 10:49
    December 22, 2023 • 10:49

    Delayed gratification is one thing, but i realise that i’ve been putting off listening to one of this year’s releases that i’ve been most looking forward to. When i first encountered Enno Poppe‘s epic Prozession, performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik at HCMF 2021 (and conducted by Poppe), it was all i …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 10, 2023 • 06:00
    November 10, 2023 • 06:00

    Borders are places of confusion, uncertainty and, often, danger, and in this context concerts such as the ones previously discussed at AFEKT 2023 – where most works had strong similarities while one or two were markedly different – raised related questions. Is such similarity attractive and important because it suggests …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Ultima 2023 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 October 10, 2023 • 12:53
    October 10, 2023 • 12:53

    The experience of Christina Kubisch‘s electromagnetic walk around Oslo’s library had a counterpart in her new vocal work, Strømsanger (“electrical singers”), premièred by Trondheim Voices. The piece originated in the electromagnetic sounds made by Trondheim’s tram system; these became the basis for transcriptions that Kubisch developed further. Lasting around 40 …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • Festivals

    Ultima 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 October 4, 2023 • 12:26
    October 4, 2023 • 12:26

    Two of my favourite elements of the Ultima festival are its sound walks and installations. To explore Trevor Mathison‘s From Signal to Decay Vol. 6 i walked across town to Atelier Nord, one of Oslo’s most chameleonic spaces. On this occasion its usually bright, open interior had been partitioned, with …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2023 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 June 3, 2023 • 05:00
    June 3, 2023 • 05:00

    The most overwhelming event at this year’s Estonian Music Days festival was a concert at the Arvo Pärt Centre given by soprano Iris Oja, percussionists Vambola Krigul and Lauri Metsvahi, and Tammo Sumera on electronics. In some respects it feels difficult to write about this concert, as the scope, depth …

    Read more
    2 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 April 22, 2023 • 09:57
    April 22, 2023 • 09:57

    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, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Forum Wallis 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 March 22, 2023 • 08:23
    March 22, 2023 • 08:23

    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, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Dark Music Days 2023 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 February 11, 2023 • 19:10
    February 11, 2023 • 19:10

    The majority of the concerts at this year’s Dark Music Days were focused on chamber music. The most leftfield of these came courtesy of Trio Isak, in a concert titled ‘Ballet on the Moon’. That title in part derived from the opening piece on the programme, Daníel Bjarnason‘s White Flags, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • Advent Calendar

    Helmut Lachenmann – Marche Fatale

    by 5:4 December 25, 2022 • 05:00
    December 25, 2022 • 05:00

    SEASONS GREETINGS! For Christmas Day i’m bringing my Advent Calendar to a close with one of the most wonderfully perverse orchestral works i’ve heard in recent years, Helmut Lachenmann‘s Marche Fatale. It began life as a piece for solo piano, premièred in 2017, and the orchestral version followed a year …

    Read more
    2 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Pierre Boulez (orch. Schöllhorn) – Notations Nos. 2, 10 & 11; La treizième (UK Première)

    by 5:4 December 4, 2022 • 05:00
    December 4, 2022 • 05:00

    Pierre Boulez composed his piano work Douze Notations in 1945. After its première in February of that year (by Yvette Grimaud), the piece was subsequently withdrawn by Boulez (evidently already regarding it as outdated), who only relented and allowed it to be published in the mid-1980s. Despite this, in 1946 …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • 20th CenturyCD/Digital releases

    Michael Gielen Edition Vol. 10: Music after 1945

    by 5:4 February 18, 2022 • 13:21
    February 18, 2022 • 13:21

    i’m really not a conductor fanboy. Composers are always getting me excited; performers too, from time to time; but conductors, in general, not so much. There are some special cases: Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly have both stunned me on countless occasions; i’ve always had a lot of time for …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • Advent Calendar

    Arne Gieshoff – STANZA

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

    The second piece i’m featuring in this year’s 5:4 Advent Calendar is STANZA, a short orchestral work by German composer Arne Gieshoff. The work’s title is a two-fold reference, to poetic structure (which in Gieshoff’s programme note seems to point toward Italian forms derived from the ‘strambotto‘, comprising eight lines …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditThreadsBlueskyEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 5

Subscribe to 5:4!

Enter your email address to subscribe to 5:4 and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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