• 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
5:4
Tag:

Ukraine

  • FestivalsPremières

    AFEKT 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 November 20, 2024 • 11:56
    November 20, 2024 • 11:56

    As i mentioned previously, the majority of this year’s AFEKT was focused on solo performers – primarily members of Ensemble Musikfabrik – with or without electronics, and these proved to be the strongest events of the festival.

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Baltic & Estonian Music Days 2024 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 May 23, 2024 • 12:05
    May 23, 2024 • 12:05

    As i mentioned previously, this year’s combined Baltic & Estonian Music Days took place in the southern city of Tartu, due to it being one of the three 2024 European Capitals of Culture. To mark the occasion, Märt-Matis Lill composed an elaborate fanfare to herald the start of the festival, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Festivals

    AFEKT 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 6, 2023 • 11:20
    November 6, 2023 • 11:20

    Perhaps there’s never been a more appropriate time for a music festival to take as its theme, “Border State”. Borders seem more prominent in world events than ever: we’ve seen them being viciously violated, vigorously reinforced, valiantly defended. Conflicts continue to rage, and the resultant feeling is one of separation …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Ultima 2023 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 October 2, 2023 • 13:47
    October 2, 2023 • 13:47

    Oslo’s annual contemporary music festival Ultima is currently in something of a transition, between outgoing artistic director Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen and incoming Heloisa Amaral, who took the helm in February this year. On the one hand, what i experienced during my three days there was broadly comparable to previous years, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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 …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 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 …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releases

    Valentin Silvestrov – Requiem für Larissa

    by 5:4 June 9, 2023 • 15:23
    June 9, 2023 • 15:23

    i want to say a few words about Valentin Silvestrov‘s Requiem für Larissa, which was actually released last autumn, but has only recently found its way into my ears. Perhaps there’s never been a more apposite time for a Ukrainian Requiem. Composed in 1999, the piece is as deeply personal …

    Read more
    1 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2023 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 May 30, 2023 • 09:27
    May 30, 2023 • 09:27

    Despite the quantity of abstract music featured at this year’s Estonian Music Days, it wasn’t surprising – with the theme “soul” looming over the Tallinn part of the festival – that many composers avoided abstraction and sought to create more tangible, referential and / or emotionally-charged music. Indeed, this was …

    Read more
    2 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Galina Grigorjeva – Molitva (World Première, theremin & strings version)

    by 5:4 December 2, 2022 • 05:00
    December 2, 2022 • 05:00

    Today marks the 60th birthday of Ukraine-born, Estonia-based composer Galina Grigorjeva. Her music over the last decade or so has progressively moved more closely in both character and ideology to that of Arvo Pärt, rooted in musical simplicity, articulating aspects of Orthodox religious belief. In the case of her 2005 …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2022 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 1, 2022 • 15:24
    December 1, 2022 • 15:24

    This year’s composer in residence at HCMF, Lisa Streich, was represented by an appropriately large number of performances, allowing for a pretty deep dive into her musical thinking. If i say that a lot of what i heard of Streich’s music was more intriguing than immediately enjoyable, i need to …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    HCMF 2022 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 November 30, 2022 • 14:27
    November 30, 2022 • 14:27

    People doing interesting things to objects doesn’t necessarily create interesting music. Can we agree on that? i don’t think that’s a particularly outrageous thing to say, though there were a number of times during my six days at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival when i found myself wondering otherwise. …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • 20th CenturyBlasts from the PastCD/Digital releases

    Blasts from the Past: Boris Lyatoshynsky – Symphonies

    by 5:4 August 23, 2022 • 10:12
    August 23, 2022 • 10:12

    While the answer to the question, “What is it good for?” continues to be “Absolutely nothing!” where war is concerned, there’s a tiny sliver of comfort to be gained from the fact that the ongoing outrage perpetrated by the Russian regime has thrown a spotlight onto aspects of Ukrainian culture …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2022 (Part 4)

    by 5:4 May 9, 2022 • 09:52
    May 9, 2022 • 09:52

    A disconcerting aspect of some of the pieces performed at this year’s Estonian Music Days was the extent to which their material, language and / or behaviour was obviously begged, borrowed and / or stolen from heavily-worn musical conventions, to the point of outright cliché. This was especially apparent in …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • FestivalsPremières

    Borealis 2022 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 March 31, 2022 • 14:48
    March 31, 2022 • 14:48

    Even at the first concert of the first day of Borealis 2022, i was realising how much the festival felt different from the norm. i go to a lot of festivals (notwithstanding the upheavals of the last two years), and for the most part, aside from cultural distinctions, they’re all …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • ConcertsPremières

    King’s Place, London: Theatre of Voices – Baltic Voices

    by 5:4 October 4, 2019 • 11:16
    October 4, 2019 • 11:16

    Personality and connection tend to go hand in hand. This is just as true for getting to know a person as it is for getting to know a piece of music: we’re drawn towards or pushed away according to the ways in which its personality – its qualities and characteristics, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2018 (Part 3)

    by 5:4 April 30, 2018 • 09:50
    April 30, 2018 • 09:50

    Over the last few years, i’ve been repeatedly impressed – no, flabbergasted – at the ingenuity, imagination and beauty that seem to typify Estonian choral music as well as distinguish it from pretty much everywhere else. It’s by no means the most experimental music to come out of the country, …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • CD/Digital releasesThematic series

    Estonia in Focus weekend: New Estonian Choral Music; Tõnu Kõrvits – Moorland Elegies; Galina Grigorjeva – Nature Morte

    by 5:4 June 26, 2017 • 15:27
    June 26, 2017 • 15:27

    To bring this first Estonia in Focus weekend to a close, some excellent CDs of Estonian contemporary choral music have been released in the last few months. Together they admirably demonstrate the considerable range and richness of compositional thought typical of the country’s new music scene. For a broad but in-depth …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • PremièresThematic series

    Estonia in Focus weekend: Galina Grigorjeva – Vespers (World Première)

    by 5:4 June 25, 2017 • 05:00
    June 25, 2017 • 05:00

    A major new choral work was premièred at this year’s Estonian Music Days in Tallinn, by one of the country’s most celebrated composers. Born in the Ukraine, Galina Grigorjeva relocated to Estonia 25 years ago and has since become essentially adopted by the country as one of its own. On …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
  • ConcertsFestivalsPremières

    Estonian Music Days 2017 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 April 11, 2017 • 22:42
    April 11, 2017 • 22:42

    i’ve recently got back from a few days in Tallinn, attending Eesti Muusika Päevad, the Estonian Music Days, the country’s annual celebration of contemporary music. Coming away from my first encounter with the EMD last year, and reflecting on the experience after, left me with mixed feelings. Estonian contemporary music …

    Read more
    0 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail

Subscribe to 5:4

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

  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • Rss
  • Mixcloud
Footer Logo

© Simon Cummings

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