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orchestra

  • CD/Digital releases

    Tōru Takemitsu – Spectral Canticle

    by 5:4 October 13, 2023 • 15:39
    October 13, 2023 • 15:39

    It’s a while since there’s been an album devoted to Tōru Takemitsu‘s orchestral music, so it’s been good to spend time with a new release from the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Christian Karlsen, that explores four of the composer’s works from the ’80s and ’90s. One of them is purely …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Dieter Ammann – Core – Turn – Burst & Unbalanced Instability

    by 5:4 October 5, 2023 • 13:03
    October 5, 2023 • 13:03

    i wish i could remember who once said to me that composing was like a form of time travel. The finished composition has a certain duration, but while working on the piece, the composer can move freely, forwards and backwards through what we might call the “compositional spacetime”, in the …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 4)

    by 5:4 September 15, 2023 • 13:37
    September 15, 2023 • 13:37

    Some years ago I was at the Royal Opera House, watching and listening with a growing sense of disbelief and horror as a contemporary opera entirely failed to understand or meaningfully capture the source material upon which it was based. That was Thomas Adès’ wretched The Exterminating Angel, an embarrassingly …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Atmospheriques Vol. I

    by 5:4 September 9, 2023 • 06:00
    September 9, 2023 • 06:00

    Two years have passed since the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s previous series of albums, Recurrence, Concurrence, Occurrence, and their latest release, Atmospheriques Vol. I, is the start of a new series. As before, the orchestra is conducted by Daníel Bjarnasson, and the emphasis is again on Icelandic composers, though here they’re …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 3)

    by 5:4 August 30, 2023 • 16:20
    August 30, 2023 • 16:20

    Staunch conservatives don’t merely hold sway over our current government but also, it seems, our concert halls, judging by the latest desolation of premières at this year’s Proms. In the case of the Prelude and Fugue in G major by Rachel Laurin, posthumously premièred in Isabelle Demers’ organ recital, i …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 2)

    by 5:4 August 15, 2023 • 12:45
    August 15, 2023 • 12:45

    It’s been a disappointing, demoralising experience spending time with the most recent batch of premières at the Proms. Derrick Skye‘s Nova Plexus, premièred by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the end of last month, was easily the most egregious of them, being yet another example of the cinematised …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2023: the premières (Part 1)

    by 5:4 July 29, 2023 • 13:07
    July 29, 2023 • 13:07

    Back in April, when i summarised the new music featured at this year’s Proms, i mentioned that the time might have come for me to finally give up trying to find some enthusiasm for its safe, unimaginative offerings. The 2023 season has been up and running for a couple of …

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  • Concerts

    Salzburg Festival 2023 / SWR Symphony Orchestra, Ingo Metzmacher: Messiaen – Éclairs sur l’Au-delà…

    by 5:4 July 26, 2023 • 12:42
    July 26, 2023 • 12:42

    During my recent time in Salzburg, i explored many of the city’s large number of churches. All of them were Catholic, and while they were undeniably impressive – none more so than the absurdly massive cathedral – it was striking to see the extent to which they were almost infeasibly …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Grażyna Bacewicz – Complete Symphonic Works Vol. 1; Piano Concertos

    by 5:4 July 5, 2023 • 11:59
    July 5, 2023 • 11:59

    A composer i’ve been trying to get the measure of lately is Grażyna Bacewicz. Bacewicz died in 1969, but her output seems to be going through something of a rediscovery of late, with concert performances and new recordings now emerging with increasing regularity. It’s a generalisation, i know, but over …

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  • Premières

    Kaija Saariaho – Vista

    by 5:4 June 13, 2023 • 11:03
    June 13, 2023 • 11:03

    i was deeply saddened recently to hear about the death, on 2 June, of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. In the days since then, i’ve been reflecting on my relationship with her music, which i’ve come to realise is similar to my relationship with Takemitsu’s music. Every time i encounter her …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Only Connect 2023 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 April 25, 2023 • 08:06
    April 25, 2023 • 08:06

    Very few performances at Only Connect 2023 failed to impress. Among the exceptions was Caminante by Michael Pisaro, premièred on the opening night by Trondheim Sinfonietta with bassist Michael Francis Duch. Though the work began well, establishing a nicely darkened texture that became almost gritty and dirty, as soon as …

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  • 20th CenturyAnniversariesBlasts from the Past

    Blasts From the Past: Rued Langgaard – Symphony No. 1

    by 5:4 April 10, 2023 • 08:58
    April 10, 2023 • 08:58

    110 years ago today, something extraordinary took place in Berlin. During the previous few years, the young Danish composer Rued Langgaard had been working on his first symphony. He began it in early 1908, at the age of 14, and completed it the following year, though he continued revising the …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 11 “Philemon und Baucis” (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 7, 2023 • 09:37
    April 7, 2023 • 09:37

    i’m bringing this year’s Lent Series to a close with another of Gloria Coates‘ remarkable symphonies. Symphony No. 11 was completed in 1999, being a response to a commission from Baron von Freyberg for the Festspiele Europäische Wochen, with the stipulation that the work should be related to Ovid’s recounting …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Peter Maxwell Davies – Antarctic Symphony (Symphony No. 8) (World Première)

    by 5:4 April 3, 2023 • 10:18
    April 3, 2023 • 10:18

    On 14 January 1953, Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica – a symphony derived from his 1948 film score for Scott of the Antarctic – was premièred in Manchester. In the audience that evening was Peter Maxwell Davies who, in 1997, was commissioned by the British Antarctic Survey to create a 50th …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Luc van Hove – Symphony No. 4 (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 29, 2023 • 09:06
    March 29, 2023 • 09:06

    Belgian composer Luc van Hove has, to date, completed four symphonies. The first two (available on a double CD from Megadisc Classics) present a musical attitude that doesn’t just embrace extremes of aggression and tenderness but also moves between them quickly. The first movement of Symphony No. 1 (1989) is …

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  • Lent Series

    Ester Mägi – Symphony

    by 5:4 March 24, 2023 • 05:00
    March 24, 2023 • 05:00

    Despite being one of Estonia’s foremost composers, Ester Mägi‘s reputation is pretty negligible outside the borders of her native land. It’s a situation that, thus far, hasn’t changed since her death in 2021, at the age of 99. My own contact with her music, despite the extent to which i’ve …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Gloria Coates – Symphony No. 7 (UK Première)

    by 5:4 March 14, 2023 • 07:48
    March 14, 2023 • 07:48

    Gloria Coates‘ Symphony No. 7 was composed from 1989 to 1990, a highly politically-charged time for those (as Coates was) living in Germany. The Berlin Wall would subsequently fall (on 9 November 1989), but while this promised to usher in a new era of peace, the profound uncertainty that suffused …

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony No. 7 (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 9, 2023 • 07:07
    March 9, 2023 • 07:07

    Do you now see the possibility of several symphonies? Yes, yes, I do, which just five years ago I would not have seen at all. But I do now feel … that it’s perhaps not too far-fetched to think that possibly I might be able to develop that. Paul Griffiths, …

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  • ConcertsPremières

    Symphony Hall, Birmingham: CBSO Youth Orchestra

    by 5:4 February 28, 2023 • 15:47
    February 28, 2023 • 15:47

    i headed up the M5 to Birmingham last Sunday for a concert given by the CBSO Youth Orchestra at Symphony Hall. For many people in the audience, i suppose the highlight would have been two works by Berlioz: the concert opened with the Roman Carnival Overture and closed with the …

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  • 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 …

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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
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