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5:4
Tag:

orchestra

  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2014: Simon Holt – Morpheus Wakes (UK Première); Jonathan Dove – Gaia Theory; Gabriel Prokofiev – Violin Concerto ‘1914’ (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 16, 2014 • 19:34
    August 16, 2014 • 19:34

    The three Proms premières given at the end of last month make for an interesting comparison, with regard to the relationship between material and intention. There was no little weight being hefted around; Jonathan Dove‘s Gaia Theory aspired to James Lovelock’s hypothesis of the same name, concerning ideas of ‘self regulation’ in …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2014: Roxanna Panufnik – Three Paths to Peace (European Première)

    by 5:4 August 4, 2014 • 19:36
    August 4, 2014 • 19:36

    Religion is for many the place where peace meets its end, falling at the hands of inharmonious ideologies in the hearts and minds of their most violent advocates. On the one hand, the claim that religion—one or many—is directly to blame for most of the innumerable wars and conflicts that …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Misato Mochizuki – Musubi (UK Première)

    by 5:4 April 14, 2014 • 20:05
    April 14, 2014 • 20:05

    Back to the Lent Series, and a work by the Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki. Mochizuki’s compositional outlook encompasses both east and west, perhaps a by-product of periods of study in Tokyo and Paris (at IRCAM, where she studied with Tristan Murail). For the last five years, Mochizuki has taught at …

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  • CommentPremières

    Hope without hope: Mark-Anthony Turnage – L’espoir (from Speranza, World Première)

    by 5:4 April 8, 2014 • 23:41
    April 8, 2014 • 23:41

    There’s an interesting small addendum to be made to my article a couple of days ago, reviewing recent CDs. i commented that LSO Live has released the world première performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s large-scale orchestral work Speranza, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding. However, what the …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Linda Buckley – chiyo (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 29, 2014 • 20:11
    March 29, 2014 • 20:11

    We’re back in Ireland for the next in my Lent Series devoted to music by women composers. Linda Buckley comes from the wonderfully-named Old Head of Kinsale, in County Cork. Her studies have centred around Trinity College Dublin, where she completed her Ph.D. and now lectures. Buckley composes intrumental and …

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  • PremièresValentine Weekend

    Valentine Weekend: Laura Bowler – Irresistible Demands of the Flesh (World Première)

    by 5:4 February 16, 2014 • 21:47
    February 16, 2014 • 21:47

    To bring this inverted Valentine Weekend to an end, i’m turning from the intimacy of duets to the large-scale, inflamed overload of the orchestra. Laura Bowler‘s Irresistible Demands of the Flesh is an audacious exploration in sound of the theatrical tenets of Antonin Artaud, specifically the desire to push performers …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Anna Clyne – Masquerade (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 9, 2013 • 16:24
    September 9, 2013 • 16:24

    All good things etc., and this year it fell to composer Anna Clyne—and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop—to get underway the biggest party-masquerading-as-a-concert of them all, the Last Night of the Proms. In calling her short work Masquerade, Clyne is presumably alluding chiefly to the carnival atmosphere …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Charlotte Seither – Language of Leaving (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 3, 2013 • 16:48
    September 3, 2013 • 16:48

    What is this “I”: is it my physical presence, is it the temporality in which I stand and pass away, is there an independence of my thoughts from that which I am, or is my entire being merely a fiction of me myself? This metaphysical conundrum is the starting point …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Param Vir – Cave of Luminous Mind (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 28, 2013 • 21:09
    August 28, 2013 • 21:09

    Last Wednesday’s world première of Param Vir‘s new Proms commission, Cave of Luminous Mind, gave particular pause for thought in light of its position in the season. Twice recently we have been presented by works from composers of Indian descent (Nishat Khan and Naresh Sohal), works seeking at least in …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Frederic Rzewski – Piano Concerto (World Première); Gerald Barry – No other people. (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 20, 2013 • 11:30
    August 20, 2013 • 11:30

    Prophets, visionaries, seers, they’re an acquired taste, are they not? Often they get relegated to an idealistic niche characterised as “head in the clouds”—yet a more careful survey reveals that most luminaries are among the most earthly-wise and practical of people. This difficult-to-digest paradox coloured much of the music at …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Sofia Gubaidulina – The Rider on the White Horse (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 19, 2013 • 20:42
    August 19, 2013 • 20:42

    The beauty and diversity of nature has been a recurring theme in this year’s new music at the Proms, whereas religious sentiment has been entirely absent—until, that is, last Tuesday’s performance of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s The Rider on the White Horse. Culled and reworked from her 2002 oratorio St John Easter …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Mark-Anthony Turnage – Frieze (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 13, 2013 • 12:00
    August 13, 2013 • 12:00

    It’s rare for the Proms not to feature music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (he’s only been absent from five of the last twenty seasons), and this year’s commission comes from the Royal Philharmonic Society, requesting a work to sit alongside their most famous commission, the climactically hysterical behemoth that is Beethoven’s …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Diana Burrell – Blaze; Edward Cowie – Earth Music I – The Great Barrier Reef (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 10, 2013 • 11:52
    August 10, 2013 • 11:52

    Last 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 2013: Naresh Sohal – The Cosmic Dance (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 5, 2013 • 20:28
    August 5, 2013 • 20:28

    One of the most striking things about several of this year’s Proms commissions is their scale, with three works of over 40 minutes’ duration. Thomas Adès’ Totentanz was the first, and the second—The Cosmic Dance by the Punjab-born British composer Naresh Sohal—received its first performance last Friday by the Royal …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Philip Glass – Symphony No. 10 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 2, 2013 • 20:00
    August 2, 2013 • 20:00

    In previous years, some readers will have noticed that there have always been a few Proms premières about which i haven’t written. Jazz-related works, being somewhat removed from my zone of interest and expertise, are ignored, along with re-discovered works from many decades ago (e.g. Britten’s Elegy for strings, receiving …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Colin Matthews – Turning Point (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 1, 2013 • 18:31
    August 1, 2013 • 18:31

    Having hitherto bewailed the fact that more challenging composers (Finnissy, Lachenmann et al.) are kept at bay from the Proms for decade after decade, last Monday’s new work came from Colin Matthews, a composer almost wildly over-represented at the festival; Matthews’ new work, Turning Point, was the 22nd of his …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: John McCabe – Joybox (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 31, 2013 • 11:46
    July 31, 2013 • 11:46

    Last Thursday’s Prom saw the world première of a piece that went through no little trial to be completed. While working on Joybox, with only 40 bars remaining to be composed, John McCabe was struck down with a brain tumour; for many people that would be that, for the time …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Sean Shepherd – Magiya (European Première)

    by 5:4 July 30, 2013 • 20:03
    July 30, 2013 • 20:03

    Just over a week ago, the Proms was introduced to a brand new orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, bringing to an end their inaugural concert tour. Having come via Moscow and St Petersburg with Valery Gergiev at the helm, and with works by Tchaikovsky …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Thomas Adès – Totentanz (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 18, 2013 • 00:00
    July 18, 2013 • 00:00

    Hot on the heels of the large-scale work of Helmut Lachenmann’s a few days ago, tonight’s Proms première was even more ambitious, Thomas Adès‘ Totentanz. Composed for a large orchestra with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, Adès has set to music a sequence of German verses known as the Lübecker Totentanz, …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: David Matthews – A Vision of the Sea (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 17, 2013 • 17:12
    July 17, 2013 • 17:12

    Down the road in my old stamping ground of Cheltenham, there’s an art exhibition regularly to be found in the town’s sumptuous Imperial Gardens. The exhibition is for those with an urge to put paintbrush to canvas, resulting in a desultory cluster of dog portraits, depictions of Cotswold stone houses …

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

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
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    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
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