Proms 2015: Luca Francesconi – Duende – The Dark Notes (UK Première)
Proms 2015: B. Tommy Andersson – Pan & Guy Barker – The Lanterne of Light (World Premières)
Per Nørgård – Three Nocturnal Movements (World Première)
Proms 2016: Michael Berkeley – Violin Concerto (World Première)
Proms 2016: Malcolm Hayes – Violin Concerto, Huw Watkins – Cello Concerto & Charlotte Bray – Falling in the Fire (World Premières)
Proms 2016: Thomas Larcher – Symphony No. 2 ‘Kenotaph’ (UK Première), Sally Beamish – Merula perpetua & Bayan Northcott – Concerto for Orchestra (World Premières)
Blasts from the Past: Dmitri Shostakovich – Cello Concerto No. 2
Proms 2017: Pascal Dusapin – Outscape (UK Première)
Proms 2017: Julian Anderson – The Imaginary Museum (World Première)
Proms 2017: Brian Elias – Cello Concerto (World Première)
Howard Skempton – Piano Concerto (World Première)
Proms 2015: Luca Francesconi – Duende – The Dark Notes (UK Première)
Rebecca Saunders – still (World Première)
Rebecca Saunders – Alba (UK Première)
Proms 2017: Julian Anderson – The Imaginary Museum (World Première)
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)
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 together, are in many respects a vivid microcosm of this qualitative inconsistency. However, there’s a world of difference between a trifle and mere triviality. No-one would claim – least of … →
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Proms 2018: The Brandenburg Project
The Proms wouldn’t be the Proms if it didn’t feature one of its favourite obsessions: contemporary music commissioned with the specific aim that it ‘responds’ to existing works in the repertoire. The most recent example of this is The Brandenburg Project, an idea dreamt up by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in which six composers were asked to write a work for solo instrument(s) and orchestra in response to one of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, utilising as far as possible … →
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Philip Venables – Venables Plays Bartók; Laura Mvula – Love Like A Lion (World Premières); Agata Zubel – Fireworks (UK Première)
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 suggests, the piece incorporates music by Bartók, inspired by an episode in Venables’ life when, as a teenage violinist, he had a lesson with Rudolf Botta, playing to him a … →
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Erkki-Sven Tüür – Illuminatio/Whistle and Whispers from Uluru/Symphony No. 8; Arvo Pärt & Alfred Schnittke – Choral Works; Arvo Pärt – The Symphonies
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 a disc featuring his Symphony No. 8, performed by the Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by Olari Elts. The disc also features two slightly older, large-scale pieces, Tüür’s 2008 viola concerto Illuminatio and … →
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Proms 2018: Per Nørgård – Symphony No. 3 (UK Première); Rolf Wallin – WHIRLD; Bushra El-Turk – Crème Brûlée on a Tree (World Premières)
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 of enraptured transcendence invoking mysticism, Rilke and Rückert, to a recipe for making custard. The source for British-born, Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk‘s short, culinary song Crème Brûlée on a Tree is a … →
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