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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Electra Perivolaris – A Forest Reawakens (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 2, 2024 • 06:00
    December 2, 2024 • 06:00

    It might seem a bit seasonally early, but the title of today’s Advent Calendar piece is, i suspect, to be taken figuratively. A Forest Reawakens by Electra Perivolaris is a short but potent orchestral work that articulates what one could read as the beginnings of a process of rebirth or …

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  • Advent Calendar

    C Duncan – Dance from a Distance

    by 5:4 December 1, 2024 • 06:00
    December 1, 2024 • 06:00

    It’s 1 December, and the festive season is distantly hoving into view, the perfect time for another 5:4 Advent Calendar, featuring 25 days of sonic wonders, curiosities, trifles and delights. The first of these baubles is Dance from a Distance, a miniature orchestral bit of fun from one of my …

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  • Festivals

    World New Music Days 2024, Faroe Islands (Part 5)

    by 5:4 July 27, 2024 • 09:36
    July 27, 2024 • 09:36

    Several events that i’d had high hopes for at this year’s World New Music Days turned out to be disappointingly underwhelming. Among them was the concert given by Danish choir ARS NOVA which, overall, featured surprisingly unadventurous repertoire, mostly standard text settings with almost nothing really exploring the voice as …

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  • Festivals

    World New Music Days 2024, Faroe Islands (Part 2)

    by 5:4 July 9, 2024 • 10:18
    July 9, 2024 • 10:18

    Despite being primarily a chamber music festival, the concerts at this year’s World New Music Days in the Faroe Islands devoted significant time to works involving electronics. Five of these were installations, of which two were noteworthy. One was Ringar í Vatni [Rings in Water] by Faroese musician Heðin Ziska …

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  • Premières

    Stuart MacRae – Prometheus Symphony (World Première)

    by 5:4 November 12, 2019 • 13:38
    November 12, 2019 • 13:38

    i’m concluding this brief look at three recent new symphonies with one by another Scottish composer, Stuart MacRae. As in James MacMillan’s latest symphony, MacRae has also turned to mythology for inspiration, drawing on the ancient Greek tale of Prometheus. According to legend – as recounted by 8th century poet Hesiod …

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  • Premières

    James MacMillan – Symphony No. 5 ‘Le grand Inconnu’ (World Première)

    by 5:4 November 6, 2019 • 12:54
    November 6, 2019 • 12:54

    Symphonies – one minute you think that no-one’s really writing them anymore, and then suddenly three of them turn up in quick succession. Of course, in reality the apparent lack of them may well be more to do with the fact that composers today are reluctant to title a work …

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  • Miscellaneous

    HCMF revisited: James Dillon – Piano Concerto ‘Andromeda’

    by 5:4 November 14, 2017 • 13:28
    November 14, 2017 • 13:28

    Scottish composer James Dillon is a regular fixture at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and the last few years have included several of his larger-scale works. Of these, the performance of his Piano Concerto ‘Andromeda’ at HCMF 2014 was one of the most striking, and has remained vividly in mind …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2015: Colin Matthews – String Quartet No. 5 (European Première); James MacMillan – Symphony No. 4 (World Première)

    by 5:4 August 14, 2015 • 08:00
    August 14, 2015 • 08:00

    At the start of last week, the Proms saw important premières from two veterans of new music, Colin Matthews and James MacMillan. Both composers have a demonstrative relationship with music from earlier times, producing work that often seeks to find a comfortable marriage of old and new, looking back and …

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  • Lent Series

    James MacMillan – St John Passion

    by 5:4 April 2, 2012 • 13:46
    April 2, 2012 • 13:46

    The next piece in my Lent series i’m including more as a curiosity than as a work i deeply admire. James MacMillan‘s St John Passion was composed in 2007 and premièred in April the following year. MacMillan structures the work in 10 movements, grouped into two parts; the first (movements …

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World New Music Days 2025 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
  • 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