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orchestra

  • Lent SeriesPremières

    Liisa Hirsch – Lävi (World Première)

    by 5:4 March 6, 2019 • 06:00
    March 6, 2019 • 06:00

    Being the first day of the season of Lent, today marks the start of the 5:4 Lent Series. This year, i’m going to be exploring works written for full orchestra, beginning with a piece by Estonian Liisa Hirsch. Hirsch is an intriguing composer; i’m still at a relatively early stage of …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Kenneth Hesketh – In Ictu Oculi

    by 5:4 December 7, 2018 • 11:10
    December 7, 2018 • 11:10

    One of the things i’ve noted previously when writing about the larger-scale music of Kenneth Hesketh – which in general i’ve admired very much – is its tendency toward what i’ve called “laser-sighted focus”. This peculiar kind of über-clarity is exhibited in many of Hesketh’s works from the noughties, and …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Jörg Widmann – Drittes Labyrinth / Polyphone Schatten

    by 5:4 December 6, 2018 • 12:40
    December 6, 2018 • 12:40

    Wergo has recently released a new disc featuring two works by Jörg Widmann, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Heinz Holliger and Emilio Pomàrico. Polyphone Schatten (‘polyphonic shadows’) dates from 2001 and features a clarinet and viola as soloists, played by Widmann himself and Christophe Desjardins. Despite the …

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  • PremièresThematic series

    Estonia in focus weekend: Helena Tulve – Extinction des choses vues (UK Première)

    by 5:4 October 27, 2018 • 05:00
    October 27, 2018 • 05:00

    In the UK, while it’s not that difficult to find performances of music from many parts of the world, opportunities to hear music from Estonia – with the obvious exception of Arvo Pärt – are extremely rare. So the decision of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to include in their season …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • 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 …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Chaines – Knockturning; Laurie Spiegel – Only Night Thoughts; Daphne Oram – Still Point (World Premières)

    by 5:4 August 2, 2018 • 15:40
    August 2, 2018 • 15:40

    For the most part, the Proms has always liked to pretend that electronics don’t really exist. The exception to this wilful ignorance are the occasions when electronics are made the focus of either a specific piece or an entire concert, as was the case with ‘Pioneers of Sound’, a late …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Ēriks Ešenvalds – Shadow; Eve Risser – Furakèla (World Premières); Andrew Norman – Spiral (UK Première)

    by 5:4 July 31, 2018 • 16:02
    July 31, 2018 • 16:02

    A piece doesn’t have to be – in fact, can hardly be – all things to all people, but in the case of Shadow, by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds‘, one has to wonder if it has much if anything to offer a mature listener. This in itself is interesting precisely because …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Ben Foster – Young Musician Theme & Variations; David Bruce – Sidechaining; Iain Farrington – Gershwinicity (World Premières)

    by 5:4 July 17, 2018 • 12:01
    July 17, 2018 • 12:01

    Party time! The Proms needs precisely no encouragement whatsoever to turn a concert into a party, and on Sunday evening, a mere two days after the opening night knees-up, came another boisterous shindig, celebrating 40 years of the Young Musician competition. Given by the BBC’s resident light music aficionados, the …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2018: Anna Meredith – Five Telegrams (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 15, 2018 • 14:18
    July 15, 2018 • 14:18

    This year’s Proms season kicked off on Friday evening with a concert featuring a major new work from Anna Meredith. Titled Five Telegrams, it’s a work that continues a thread that’s been running through mainstream British culture for the last few years, commemorating the events of the First World War. …

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  • CD/Digital releasesLent Series

    Rebecca Saunders on record (Part 4)

    by 5:4 March 28, 2018 • 14:15
    March 28, 2018 • 14:15

    Before i conclude my survey of the available recordings of Rebecca Saunders‘ music, i want to flag up some omissions. There are three works that i’m not able to discuss at this point as i haven’t yet got hold of copies of the discs on which they’re featured: rubricare (2005) which …

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  • AnniversariesLent SeriesPremières

    Rebecca Saunders – traces (UK/Austrian Premières)

    by 5:4 February 14, 2018 • 00:00
    February 14, 2018 • 00:00

    Rebecca Saunders turned 50 towards the end of last year, so to mark this milestone the 5:4 Lent Series will this year be dedicated to her music. Over the course of the next six weeks, i’ll be looking at a number of her pieces in some detail, as well as …

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  • PremièresThematic series

    Estonia in Focus weekend: Erkki-Sven Tüür – Symphony No. 9 ‘Mythos’ (World Première)

    by 5:4 February 10, 2018 • 05:00
    February 10, 2018 • 05:00

    i’m now turning my attention this weekend to Erkki-Sven Tüür, a composer whose work in many respects sounds distinctly different from a lot of Estonian contemporary music (and as i’ve previously mentioned, he remarked to me last year that he feels himself to be something of an outsider). To get …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Jasun Martz – A Retrospective: Non-Finito, Alchemy, Corrosion, Chroma, The Pillory, The Battle

    by 5:4 October 26, 2017 • 10:21
    October 26, 2017 • 10:21

    Another unusual release i’ve received recently came from Jasun Martz, a US musician and artist of whom i was previously unaware, but a quick search online reveals has apparently been involved in music for almost 50 years, with a variety of both classical and pop/rock connections. What i received consisted of six …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2017: Lotta Wennäkoski – Flounce (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 10, 2017 • 10:49
    September 10, 2017 • 10:49

    After eight weeks of (for the most part) serious music-making, the Last Night of the Proms, quite reasonably, is primarily disposed to the aim of letting of steam and just having fun. For the contemporary composer chosen to get the evening going each year, the enormous sense of occasion – …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2017: Hannah Kendall – The Spark Catchers (World Première)

    by 5:4 September 1, 2017 • 09:06
    September 1, 2017 • 09:06

    The latest orchestral work by British composer Hannah Kendall received its first performance a couple of nights ago at a late night Prom given by Chineke! Orchestra, the flagship orchestra of the Chineke! Foundation, established a couple of years ago “to provide career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2017: Andrea Tarrodi – Liguria (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 31, 2017 • 12:59
    August 31, 2017 • 12:59

    Last night saw the second UK première by a Swedish composer at this year’s Proms, this time from Andrea Tarrodi. For those unfamiliar with her work, the key part of her responses to my pre-première questions was the reference to her parallel passion for painting, plus the related fact that …

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