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5:4
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orchestra

  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Helmut Lachenmann – Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 16, 2013 • 13:02
    July 16, 2013 • 13:02

    There is, it seems to me, a distinct sense of double-edged sword to the territorial (as opposed to world) premières that feature in each year’s Proms. It’s encouraging, of course, that such fascinating works are introduced to British audiences, but many’s the time one can’t help wondering why on earth …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Julian Anderson – Harmony (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 13, 2013 • 08:34
    July 13, 2013 • 08:34

    Last night the 2013 Proms season began, as it now always does, with a world première from a mainstream composer. At the outset, i have to admit to a certain lack of enthusiasm for the occasion, due both to the recent track record of the opening night (Turnage and Weir …

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  • Premières

    Magnus Lindberg – Era (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 2, 2013 • 21:42
    July 2, 2013 • 21:42

    One of the more striking premières i’ve caught in recent months took place at the Barbican’s Total Immersion event ‘New from the North’, back in March. On the one hand, it’s disappointing that these events are no longer in the least bit ‘total’ and have come very far from being …

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  • Premières

    Chiyoko Szlavnics – Materia/Immateria (World Première)

    by 5:4 June 26, 2013 • 21:09
    June 26, 2013 • 21:09

    Due to various compositional projects, i’ve not been able to give 5:4 much focus in the last few weeks, but now that i have some breathing space, it’s time to catch up on the more interesting recent premières and new releases. As well as being interesting, one of the most …

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  • Premières

    Helen Grime – Near Midnight (World Première)

    by 5:4 June 4, 2013 • 12:09
    June 4, 2013 • 12:09

    At last year’s Proms, Helen Grime’s focus was on the night; her latest orchestral work—the first in her rôle as Associate Composer to the Hallé Orchestra—continues that theme, in part taking its inspiration from a poem by D. H. Lawrence, title ‘Week-night service’, which begins thus: The five old bells …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Evocative bewilderments of utterance: Kenneth Hesketh – Wunderkammer(konzert)

    by 5:4 April 25, 2013 • 21:06
    April 25, 2013 • 21:06

    Among the recent releases from the NMC Recordings stable i was pleased to see one devoted to the music of Kenneth Hesketh. Ken’s music has intrigued me for some years, and i’ve had the good fortune to conduct one of his works (Fra Duri Scogli) back in 2010. The new …

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  • PremièresThematic series

    Ferneyhough Week – Plötzlichkeit (UK Première)

    by 5:4 January 18, 2013 • 09:19
    January 18, 2013 • 09:19

    A principal thread running through much of Brian Ferneyhough’s music is one that plays with notions of linear narrative. It has been present as far back as the Sonatas for String Quartet, composed in 1967, which intercuts two entirely separate materials, one strictly serial, the other intuitive. Incipits (1996)—drawing inspiration …

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  • Thematic series

    Ferneyhough Week – La terre est un homme

    by 5:4 January 14, 2013 • 15:08
    January 14, 2013 • 15:08

    This week sees the 70th birthday of one of the UK’s most significant composers, Brian Ferneyhough. For nearly fifty years, his music has been thrilling and discombobulating audiences in not entirely equal measure, pursuing his compositional goals with ruthless, painstaking rigour. As has long been the case with its most …

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  • CommemorationsPremières

    In Memoriam: Jonathan Harvey – Messages (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 6, 2012 • 21:54
    December 6, 2012 • 21:54

    To find myself writing the words “In Memoriam” for the third time in as many months is deeply saddening, all the more so as the loss of Jonathan Harvey, who died two days ago aged 73, is one that feels particularly acute here in the UK. Whether Harvey was our …

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  • ConcertsFestivals

    HCMF 2012: Oslo Sinfonietta

    by 5:4 November 18, 2012 • 20:35
    November 18, 2012 • 20:35

    Following a collection of strangers down a bleak back street to a gloomy factory and then passing through a makeshift entrance labelled ‘The Blending Shed’ might sound like the makings of a nightmare, but this was the way in which i found myself at Bates Mill, for yesterday evening’s concert …

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  • Commemorations

    In Memoriam: Hans Werner Henze – Symphony No. 5

    by 5:4 October 28, 2012 • 15:53
    October 28, 2012 • 15:53

    Yesterday brought the very sad news that the composer Hans Werner Henze has died. It’s not for me to attempt an obituary—i only know a little of Henze’s life, and have only really scratched the surface of his considerable output—but by way of a small tribute, here’s a performance of …

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  • CommemorationsPremières

    Tōru Takemitsu – From me flows what you call time (UK Première)

    by 5:4 October 8, 2012 • 12:33
    October 8, 2012 • 12:33

    It was on this day, in 1930, that one of my favourite composers, the great Tōru Takemitsu, was born. So to mark what would have been his 82nd birthday, here’s one of his most spectacular orchestral works, the wonderfully-named From me flows what you call time. The title is taken …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Mark Simpson – sparks (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 9, 2012 • 08:59
    September 9, 2012 • 08:59

    Last Night, almost two months after it began, the 2012 Proms season closed with its traditional cross between a concert and a piss-up. A relatively new addition to its arcane traditions is beginning proceedings with the première of a new work, and this year the mantle fell to Mark Simpson. One can …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Helen Grime – Night Songs (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 28, 2012 • 10:47
    August 28, 2012 • 10:47

    Partway through last Saturday’s Proms world première of Night Songs, the new work from Helen Grime, conductor Oliver Knussen dropped his glasses. To listen to the performance, one would hardly have noticed; yet, at the end, Knussen announced the mishap to the audience and remarked how he thought it had …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Emily Howard – Calculus of the Central Nervous System (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 27, 2012 • 17:55
    August 27, 2012 • 17:55

    Last Tuesday saw the first UK performance of Emily Howard‘s Calculus of the Central Nervous System, an orchestral work inspired by the thinking of the English mathematician Ada Lovelace. Premièred at last year’s Wien Modern Festival by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, it was performed on this occasion by …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Per Nørgård – Symphony No. 7 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 18, 2012 • 11:17
    August 18, 2012 • 11:17

    Despite the understandable reluctance on the part of contemporary composers to use the word, there’s nothing quite like seeing ‘symphony’ on a concert programme to get one’s blood and expectations pumping. When the composer in question is Per Nørgård, as it was last week at the Proms, then the excitement …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Thea Musgrave – Loch Ness – a Postcard from Scotland (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 8, 2012 • 21:53
    August 8, 2012 • 21:53

    The Proms weekend devoted to youth orchestras concluded with that of Scotland, and fittingly the concert’s new work came from Edinburgh-born Thea Musgrave. She extended the theme further, choosing for her subject that most evocative of places, Loch Ness, known the world over for the mythological leviathan once purported to …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Elaine Agnew – Dark Hedges (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 5, 2012 • 10:19
    August 5, 2012 • 10:19

    Yesterday afternoon’s Prom brought the first performance of Dark Hedges, by the Northern Irish composer Elaine Agnew. It was given by the combined forces of the Ulster Youth Orchestra of Northern Island and the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by JoAnna Falletta, with a solo flute part played by housewives’ favourite, James …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Rued Langgaard – Symphony No. 11 “Ixion”; Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen – Incontri (UK Premières)

    by 5:4 August 4, 2012 • 08:10
    August 4, 2012 • 08:10

    In a change to the planned schedule (due to Benedict Mason not having finished his new work meld), last Saturday’s Prom featured two UK premières, both by composers rarely heard on these shores. Difficult pieces – but for different reasons – they were given marvellously lucid performances by the BBC …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2012: Charlotte Bray – At the Speed of Stillness (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 30, 2012 • 10:16
    July 30, 2012 • 10:16

    Perhaps one of the more highly anticipated premières at this year’s Proms was Charlotte Bray‘s At the Speed of Stillness, which received its first performance last night by the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder. Bray’s name has been growing in significance particularly in the last year or so; …

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
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    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • 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
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