Brexit is not the only European issue that British composers should be thinking about right now. You may have seen, especially from platforms such as YouTube, a concerted action against ...
British-South African composer John Joubert died on 7th January. He was 91. Joubert was born in Cape Town, South Africa and educated in the Anglican Diocesan College in Rondebosch. He ...
Bushra El-Turk I talk to composer Bushra El-Turk, whose work ‘Mosaic’ will be performed by the Pro Youth Philharmonia as part of a series of New Year Concerts exploring themes ...
From the point of view of a UK citizen, it is hard not to look forward to the coming weeks and months without a sense of trepidation. At some point ...
In 2018 C:T celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday; congratulated the many composers who received honours, awards and prizes; reviewed recordings; interviewed composers and mourned the loss of some much-loved colleagues. ...
Congratulations to this year’s British Composer Award winners, who were announced in a ceremony at the British Museum last night. There were twelve categories, with the winners as follows: Amateur or Young ...
Philip Venables, photo Harald Hoffman I talk to composer Philip Venables. One of the most exciting voices of his generation, his works fearlessly confront issues of sexuality, politics, gender and ...
This years’s Spitalfields Music Festival (1st–9th Dec) will examine the connections that span many centuries and genres of English music, seeking out connections between old and new. On 4th the Coveyard, a group of ...
Judith Weir has been announced as this year’s commissioned composer for King’s College Cambridge’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The tradition of commissioning a new carol for each service ...
Over the last two-and-a-half years I have come to admire those people for whom Brexit is a turnoff. The mere mention of the word produces a glassy-eyed look, or, perhaps ...
This year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (16th–25th November) will feature 15 world premieres, including works by Scott McLaughlin, Nicole Lizée, Christopher Fox, Anna Meredith, Catherine Kontz, Monty Adkins, Matt Wright, Martin Arnold, ...
Vanessa Rose. Photo Credit: Julia Gang. On 30th October Anne LeBaron, Board Chair of America Composers Forum, announced the appointment of Vanessa Rose as their new President and CEO from ...
Melvyn Bragg has added his voice to debate on how Brexit will affect the art in the UK, saying in the House of Lords: Today our musicians travel freely; connections are ...
Leuven’s Transit Festival came to a close last night with Jessie Marino’s bewilderingly Nice Guys Win Twice. Blurring the line between music, theatre and visual art one was left impressed by the means, even ...
Congratulations to young Scotsman Gregor Forbes, who is the first composer to win the International Hanns Eisler Scholarship by the City of Leipzig. He will receive 5000 euros and be invited to ...
If you are an ageing composer whose heart was warmed by the news that Simon Rattle has ‘discovered’ nonagenarian Betsy Jolas, you should probably moderate your enthusiasm. Whilst Rattle knew very little ...
Maarten Beirens You’ve been at the festival since 2015? Let me try to do the maths…I think so. This is my fourth edition. Could you tell us a little bit ...
An immersive 9-day music series, Spitalfields Music Festivalmarries early and contemporary music. Now in its 42nd year, the festival will once again bring artists, audiences and communities together in the heart ...
It’s gratifying to find a new music festival on one’s doorstep, so I make special mention today of Festival 20/21, which runs from 24th September to 25th October in the Flemish city ...
Kemal Yusuf I talk to composer and founder of the London Graduate Orchestra, Kemal Yusuf. With recent commissions from The Cheltenham International Music Festival, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The ...
The Proms draw to a close on Saturday with one final premiere, Songs of Darkness by Roxanna Panufnik. This then serves as a reminder to catch-up on some of those concerts that ...
The excellent politics.co.uk, edited by the even more excellent Ian Dunt, posted an article on 3rd September pointing out how Brexit, whilst being a cry against metropolitan elites, will probably end up focusing ...
The London Symphony Orchestra has announced the appointment of six new composers to its LSO Soundhub and LSO Jerwood Composer+ programmes, and two composers who will continue onto the next ...
Israeli composer, conductor and teacher Noam Sheriff died on 25th August. He was 83. As a composer Sheriff fused elements of Eastern and Western music in a broadly atonal style. ...
Described by The Wire Magazine as “a welcome addition to London’s already blossoming contemporary composition scene”, Borough New Music has announced its next season of concerts, from Series 10 starting in October 2018, ...
There have been some astonishing composerly revivals during the course of music history: Bach was underrated until Mendelssohn performed the St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Singakademie in March 1829, ...
If British musicians’ Brexit frustrations have sometimes lacked focus, the furore surrounding this year’s Womad Festival has clarified matters a great deal. As mentioned in an earlier blogpost, the festival organiser, ...
The Presteigne Festival takes place in the picturesque surroundings of the Welsh Marches just about on the Welsh side of the Powys/Herefordshire border. This year the theme is Baltic music, celebrating the ...
On Thursday the House of Lords European Union Committee reported on the likely implications for the cultural sector once the UK has left the European Union. It stressed the importance of freedom ...
The theme at this year’s festival is ‘childhood’, with many projects aimed specifically at the younger generation. This includes Schraffur by festival composer-in-residence Fritz Hauser. It will include 300 participate of all ages ...
Olly Knussen’s marvellous Flourish With Fireworks, performed as an opener at the First Night of the Proms, was a seemly way to mark the sad news of his death. In other ...
Kenneth Hesketh (photo: E.Thornton) You crowned 2017 with a British Composer Award for your wind ensemble piece In Ictu Oculi. Now that work will form part of the programme for ...
The musical world today mourns the loss of one of the outstanding figures in contemporary British music, composer and conductor Oliver Knussen, CBE. He was just 66. Ever self-critical his ...
Tête à Tête director Bill-Bankes Jones describes opera as ‘the most visceral of art forms. Unless its driver is something that forces a raw primal cri de coeur, it makes no ...
In addition to the excellent new Andrew Hamilton disc, NMC, in association with the PRS Foundation, has released two more recordings in its New Music Biennial series: Eliza Carthy’s Rivers and Railways, ...
Andrew Hamilton‘s Music for People, a new album on NMC, contains three works by the composer: music for people who like art, for voice and ensemble; To the People for soprano and percussion; andmusic for ...
Germany’s Goethe-Insitut makes an annual award for those who ‘have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations.’ One of this year’s prize winner is Hungarian ...
This year’s Cheltenham Music Festival packs an impressive 65 events into its two weeks, with plenty of new music to boot. There’s a chance to hear Colin Riley’s ‘new kind ...
Edward Gregson When we first started communicating by email you told me you ‘had you head down orchestrating.’ Would you like to let us know what you have been writing? ...
The BBC announced yesterday that it is to leave its Maida Vale Studios. Starting life as the Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace in 1909, it has since played host to ...
New works seemed a bit thin on the ground at 2017’s BBC Proms, so it is good to see a healthy 19 world premieres this year. The biggest winners are: Anna ...
St. Magnus International Music Festival The St. Magnus International Festival runs from 22–28th June, with its usual mix of classical music, theatre, dance, poetry, bands, visual art, community participation and new work. ...
The 2018 Aldeburgh Festival celebrates Britten’s links to America via the music of Leonard Bernstein, whose centenary it is this year. Britten and Bernstein had a remarkably similar training and outlook—both conducted, ...
US composer and guitarist Glenn Branca died on May 13th. He was 69. Branca studied theatre at Emerson College, Boston. After spending time in the UK in 1973, he returned ...
New York-based composer Matt Marks died on May 11th. He was just 38. Not just a composer but also a mean arranger, singer and horn player, Marks was a founding ...
Whether a recent story about proclivities of Admiral Lord Nelson is true or false, it rather proves that the sexual lives of the renowned dead provide good copy. This has always been ...
American composer, pianist and academic Donald H. Keats died on 27th April. He was 88. Keats was a graduate of Yale University, where he studied with Quincy Porter and Hindemith, ...
Moritz Eggert – photo Katharina Dubno I talk to German composer Moritz Eggert about his life, motivations and new CD Musica Viva 30, which has just been released on the ...
Composer and academic James Wishart has died of a stroke aged 61. Wishart was a lecturer in composition at the University of Liverpool from 1980 to 2013. He was also active ...
Classical music streaming service IDAGIO has announced a collaboration that will make the entire Warner Classics and Erato catalogue available to its users. The IDAGIO catalogue, which already comprises over ...
Jennifer Higdon has been awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition for ‘her highly acclaimed and wide-ranging compositions that have led to her status and one of most ...
The Techtonics Festival (5–6th) at City Halls, Glasgow prides itself on being being international, this year being no exception, with performers and composers from Japan, Lithuania, France, Sweden, Norway USA and UK. ...
A belated ‘happy birthday’ to Samuel Adler, who celebrated his 90th birthday on 4th March. Some composers will know him best from his widely used treatise The Study of Orchestration, but ...
Canadian composer Robert Joseph Rosen died on Monday 19th March in Ottawa. He was 61. Rosen studied in Canada with Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth and Bruce Mather. He attended the ...
Other than the Venables album (see last post) NMC have just released a programme of music by Brian Ferneyhough performed by Exaudi and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The title work, La Terre est ...
If there’s a British composer on a roll at the moment, it’s Philip Venables. His first major opera, a setting of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, premiered in 2016 at the Royal ...
In April Borough New Music arrives at Series 7 in its mammoth cycle of contemporary music concerts. On 3rd there are works for combinations of soprano, countertenor and piano by George Crumb, HK Gruber, ...
Croatian composer, conductor and teacher Milko Kelemen died on 8th March in Stuttgart. He was 93. Kelemen was a composition pupil of Stjepan Šulek, later studying in Paris with Messiaen ...
The interface between music, engineering and the life sciences is an ongoing area of research at Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR). ‘Decoding Life’, the theme of ...
Kaija Saariaho has been announced as the winner of the 10th edition of the BBVA Foundation Contemporary Music Award. The prize is $500,000. From the BBVA website: The BBVA Foundation Frontiers ...
Hungarian composer László Melis died on 12th February. He was 65. Melis studied the violin at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, before performing extensively as a founding member of the contemporary ...
Icelandic composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson died suddenly at his apartment on 9th February. He was just 48. He is best known for his film scores, including Prisoners (2013), The Theory of Everything (2014) Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016) and The ...
After updating C:T’s opportunity page today, I came across this article by Norman Lebrecht over at Slipped Disk. It describes how this week’s Singapore Violin Competition has effectively been rigged, since the ...
I talk to composer Nigel Osborne, who was recently been awarded the British Composer Award for Inspiration in recognition of his human rights work. Your early composing followed a well-established ...
Geraldine Mucha in the 1980s. Image: geraldinemucha.org Whilst last year marked the centenary of the birth of Scottish composer Geraldine Mucha, 2018 will see further celebrations of her life and work. Mucha ...
This year Radio France’s Festival Présences (6th–11th February) celebrates the music of composer, organist and improvisor Thierry Escaich. As well as performances of existing works, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France ...
Many years ago I visited the astonishing ruins at Delphi on the Greek Peloponnese. At the end of the visit I went tiredly round the museum, looking at the many ...
It has been reported that Bingley Grammar School charges children £5 per week to take GCSE music lessons after school. The decision was described by the Incoporated Society of Musicians as ‘shocking ...
Presumably when Matt Hancock, the new UK Culture Secretary, compared the creative industries to a woolly mammoth on Tuesday, he meant ‘big’ and and not muddle-minded. We can only hope he is ...
The Government has released its Creative Industries Report prepared by the Department for Exiting the EU. You can read it here. The opening paragraph makes it clear that this is not ...
After writing the C:T review of 2017, I found myself reflecting on the things that were predicted to happen in 2017 but didn’t. Chief among these was that a wave ...
I’m at last tucked up with my family in a remote part of West Wales, all ready to enjoy Christmas. December’s arranging work finished ahead of time, the fire roaring, ...
2016 was viewed by many in the music world as one to forget. There were the deaths of Boulez, David Bowie, Peter Maxwell Davies and Prince and the twin political earthquakes ...
‘The Silver Stars at Play’ from Primae Facie Records features 23 world premiere carol recordings. At over 70 minutes it is a generous programme, with a cross-section of both significant and lesser-known ...
I was lucky enough to attend the British Composer Awards last night, held at the British Museum, London. The ceremony was presented by Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch of Radio ...
A few thoughts from the first night of a Stockhausen weekend held at De Bijloke in Ghent, which I had the pleasure of attending on Friday. We were presented with one of ...
On Nimbus Kol Nidrei: Elegy for Pamela contains string quartets commissioned to celebrate the life of chamber music educator Pamela Majaro. It opens with the Cavatina from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 ...
Photo: Pavel Antonov Sad news, with the death yesterday of the great Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Whilst not a great exponent of contemporary music, he was known for his ...
A selection of reviews from the opening of Nico Muhly’s Marnie, premiered at ENO last Saturday. Muhly’s second opera for the company, it is based upon either or both the 1964 ...
The Spitalfields Winter Festival runs from 2nd to 9th December. Artistic Curator André de Ridder explains that this year the focus is on ‘making each event, each evening a festival in its ...
On 9th November the Paul Hamlyn Foundation announced their Awards for Artists list for 2017. The Award, which provides ‘individuals with financial assistance at a timely moment in their careers’, has been ...
Czech-American composer Ladislav Kubík died on 27th October. He was 71. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Ladislav Kubík studied at the Prague Academy of Music. He established a significant career in Europe—with ...
French composer and conductor Jean-Jacques Werner died on 22nd October aged 82. A native of Strasbourg, in his youth he studied the harp, horn and conducting before completing his higher ...
The British Academy of Songwriter, Composers and Authors (BASCA) has announced its nominees for its 2017 composer awards, which will be presented in London on 6th December. 2017 British Composer ...
Hyperion have just released a recording of James McCarthy’s cantata Codebreaker, which tell the story of Alan Turing’s life through three key moments: when he fell in love as a boy, during the ...
The fortieth Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (17th November—26th), features 31 world premieres and 103 UK premieres across 33 events. One of the first works featured will be rock guitarist Lou Reed’s Metal Machine ...
Sound and Music has announced its 2017/18 ‘Adopt a Composer’ pairings. These are: Anna Appleby with Merchant Sinfonia Max Charles Davies with Côr Crymych a’r Cylch Esmeralda Conde Ruiz with The Fretful Federation Mandolin ...
Swiss composer Klaus Huber died in Perugia, Italy on October 2nd. He was 92. Born in 1924, Huber attended the Zürich Conservatory, studying the violin with Stefi Geyer and composition ...
I can imagine that the story of Richard White has warmed the heart of many a middle-aged (and older) composer. White has just had his 900-page opera selected for a workshop ...
The latest request from a commercial organisation that musicians work for free has been given a withering response on social media. The organisation in question was East Midlands Airport, who recently ...
Borough New Music was founded in January of this year with the aim of celebrating the music of today and of living composers. Following its first series of concerts in February, ...
Perhaps there’s life in the old beast yet. Sibelius yesterday announced ‘Cloud Sharing’, which will allow the program ‘to send Sibelius scores to the cloud for rendering that can be displayed ...
Sad news with the dead of two renowned British composers. Derek Bourgeois (1941–2017) Derek Bourgeois died on 6th September aged 75. Born in Kingston upon Thames, he was educated at ...
Julian Anderson is the subject of A BBC Total Immersion Day on 21st October. It begins at 1pm at Milton Concert Hall with Guildhall musicians performing chamber works Ring Dance, The Colour of Pomegrantes, Van ...
Madeleine Mitchell. Photo by Rama Knight Christian Morris talks to Madeleine Mitchell, who will be giving the world premiere of a newly discovered work by Grace Williams on 7th September ...
The title work Jonathan Dove’s new Signum disk, In Damascus, is the composer’s response to contemporary events in Syria. Written for tenor and string quartet it is a haunting collection of eleven short movements, ...
Sad news with the loss of composers Pēteris Plakidis and Marian Varga, both on 8th August. Pēteris Plakidis (1947–2017) was Latvian, a graduate from the Jāzeps Vītols State Conservatory in ...
September sees the return of Simon Rattle to London as LSO Music Director, an event that will be celebrated with a series of Barbican concerts that have contemporary music front ...
After spilling more than a few column inches over the Tête à Tête Opera Festival I thought, today, that it was probably time to move on. Then I came across ...
The cast of Pterodactyls of Ptexas taking a bow. My arrival at the first night of Tête à Tête coincided with a pop-up performance of Samuel Bordoli’s Belongings, a work first performed on the Caledonian ...
Tête à Tête kicks off tomorrow in London, running until 13th August. I’ve long wanted to experience the festival, probably the UK’s liveliest forum for new opera, so am today heading ...
Till Janczukowicz Christian Morris talks to Till Janczukowicz, the CEO and founder of Idagio, a new music-streaming app dedicated to classical music that has some intriguing possibilities for composers. What is ...
French composer Pierre Henry died on Wednesday at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Paris. He was 89. Henry was known as one of the pioneers of noise in music, his interest beginning ...
NMC is taking preorders for its New Music Biennial Subscription in association with the PRS Music Foundation. The programme builds upon two earlier NMC programmes, the New Music Biennial 2014 and the ...
Arts Council England has just announced its portfolio organisations that will receive funding over the next four years. A greater percentage of money than in previous years will be used to fund ...
French composer and organist Jacques Charpentier died on 15th June, aged 83. Partly self-taught, he was also decisively influenced by Indian music and by Olivier Messiaen. The fullest evidence of ...
Trying to summarise concerts at this, the busiest time of year, is a fool’s errand. What follows, then, is the merest scratch of the surface of the many event on ...
Musicians looking for rays of soft Brexit hope following Theresa May’s disastrous election last week might reflect on the fact that far from softening Brexit, it may have produced something ...
This iOS app from independent developer Alexei Baboulevitch won a Children’s Technology Review award, which suggests that it might not be much use for creative professionals. That would be wrong. ...
The latest contemporary music phenomenon is Dutch pianist Joep Beving. For fun, Beving uploaded some of his music to Spotify. Since doing so his compositions have been streamed an astonishing 85 ...
Maria Wanda Milliore, originator of the fantastical lake opera sets at the Bregenz Festival, died on May 12th aged 96. It was for a performance of Mozart’s Bastien et Bastienne in 1946 ...
Several big festivals to look forward to next month. In Amsterdam the Holland Festival (3–25 June) contains a mixture of theatre, dance, music, visual arts and film. There is plenty of new ...
Harriet Mackenzie (violin), Retorica, English Symphony Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Kenneth Woods (conductor). Nimbus NI 6295. Violinist Harriet Mackenzie and conductor Kenneth Woods have both made appearances on this blog before. ...
The Royal Philharmonic Society announced their music awards yesterday evening at The Brewery in the City of London. The awards celebrate live music-making and recognise outstanding musical achievement in the UK during ...
In Philadelphia, a project to reanimate over 1,000 broken instruments owned by the school district is reaching its latter stages. The project is the brainchild of Robert Blackson, Director of ...
Tickets for the BBC Proms go on sale at 9am on Saturday 13th May. The full programme is available, here. If you wish to view the living composers represented, click on this ...
PRS has just announced that it has secured funding of €200,000 from the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. The money will be used to run its European Keychange programme to ...
May begins with a BBC Total Immersion Day dedicated to the music of Edgard Varèse at Barbican on 6th. There will be a talk at 12pm, a concert of ensemble musical 2pm, a ...
Samuel Barber would have been 107 on 9th March, an event I marked by mentioning Paul Moon’s soon-to-be-released documentary on the composer, Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty. I am lucky to have ...
As well as the Rhona Clarke (see my previous blog post, below) other recent releases include, on Wergo, Tun Tu, a disk of electroacoustic music by Chinese composer Sing Wang; Wechselspiele, vocal ...
Piano Trios 2, 3 and 4 (‘A Different Game’); Gleann Da Lough (solo piano), Con Coro (violin, cello and tape), In Umbra (solo cello). The Fidelio Trio, Métier msv 28561. ...
There is a nice story over at Slipped Disc about conductor David Bernard’s reaction to a small boy talking between pieces in a recent concert. Audience members became restless at the disturbance, ...
Charlotte C. Gill’s article Music education is now only for the white and the wealthy, published in The Guardian on 27th March has caused quite the furore. A response by pianist Ian Pace has ...
I am currently spending a few days as an observer at the International Musicological Society’s 20th Annual Congress (19th–23rd March) in Tokyo, partly to provide company to my partner, who ...
A belated happy birthday to Tristan Murail, who turned 70 on 11th March. At a time when composer birthdays are marked with endless retrospectives and whole years dedicated to their ...
A very happy birthday to Samuel Barber, who would have been 107 today. To mark the occasion, here is a preview of a soon to be released documentary about the ...
Susanna Eastburn, Chief Executive of Sound and Music Today is International Women’s Day, which celebrates the ‘social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women’ whilst calling for action to ...
NMC D220 Hallé, Hallé Youth Choir, The Manchester Grammar School Choir, Jamie Phillips and Sir Mark Elder. It seems ridiculous that a disk that has no overt political agenda should, as the clock ...
Leuven City Centre It is with some exhaustion that I have just updated the concert listings here on C:T. Another period of change sees me now living in Leuven, Belgium, having wended ...
On 25th March at The Barbican is the chance to hear Shostakovich’s piano score New Babylon, which will accompany a screening of the film. This is the first performance of the ...
Ashwood Photography London Christian Morris talks to Philip Sawyers, whose Symphony No. 3 will be premiered by the English Symphony Orchestra on 28th February at St John’s Smith Square, London. ...
The Royal Academy of Music recently announced that John Adams will join their staff as a visiting Professor of Composition: John Adams, one of the world’s leading composers, has joined the Royal ...
Following the enormous success of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, which has been performed nearly 100 times around the world, the Royal Opera House has commissioned a new opera from the ...
The PRS has just announced the twelve UK composers who will receive funding ‘to enable them to realise projects and ambitions that may not be possible through traditional commissioning models.’ ...
Robert Matthew-Walker Robert Matthew-Walker is a fascinating figure. In the 60s he served in the army, including in North Africa, studied in Paris with Darius Milhaud and founded the Tunnel ...
February night not be the best time of year for festivals, but there are two decent events this month. The first, in Paris, is Festival Présences‘ Kaija Saariaho, Un Portrait, which runs ...
Chilean composer José Vicente Asuar died on 11th January. He was 83. Asuar studied in his native Chile and subsequently in Germany, later taking charge of electronic studios in both ...
This second part to my Dorico diary has been a long time coming, so perhaps I should start by explaining why. When I took a first look at the software back ...
Belgian composer Tristan Clais died on 4th January aged 87. He studied music and theatre at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and from 1958 presented musical programmes on Belgium television, ...
With the loss of a number of musicians, cultural icons such as Peter Shaffer, Umberto Eco, Harper Lee, Elie Wiesel and Alan Rickman, not to mention some seismic political events, ...
American composer Elliott Schwartz died on Wednseday aged 80. He taught for over 40 years at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine and was performed widely in the US. He held a ...
The winners of the 2016 British Composer Awards were announced last night at a ceremony at BFI Southbank, London. Here’s the complete list, with information about each piece and, in ...
Book choices The French Connection: Caroline Potter Henri Dutilleux £34.99; Caroline Potter Erik Satie A Parisian Composer and His World; ed. Peter O’Hagan and Edward Campbell Pierre Boulez Studies (£69.45). Though it does not cover the composer’s ...
James Weeks: SIGNS OF OCCUPATION, msv 28559 (Spotify, Apple Music) Actually released way back in September, I only came across this today and was attracted by its grungy back-to-basics approach. To ...
If, like me, you’ve entered a few composition competitions in your time, you might be interested in this survey (the link follows the description): There are few ‘emerging’ composers active ...
France is mourning the loss of composer Jean-Claude Risset, who died on Monday aged 78. He is often mentioned alongside French electronic pioneers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer and is ...
On December 2nd Valery Gergiev will give the ‘world premiere’ of Stravinky’s Funeral Song.The piece, which was performed just once before being lost, was decribed by the composer as “The best ...
December is not traditionally known for its music festivals, which makes the Spitalfields Winter Festival, which this year runs from 4th–11th, a welcome anomaly. There are a number of dance and ...
As well as the new Michael Berkeley carol for Kings (see my previous blog post) there are a number of contemporary music Christmas options to consider in December. On 2nd ...
From the King’s website: The composer of this year’s commissioned Christmas carol is British composer Michael Berkeley, who has set to music a the traditional 15th century Christmas text This Endernight. ...
Four visual artists and three composers have just been announced as recipients of the £50,000 Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. ‘Awards for Artists was launched in 1994 and are the largest individual awards ...
I now have a copy of Dorico, the new scorewriting software from Steinberg (see my previous blog post). What I am going to attempt, over several blog posts, is less a ...
On 19th October Steinberg released the first version of its scorewriting software Dorico. This is an event of huge significance, since it promises to give professional composers, engravers and educators ...
I have already posted summaries of two major festivals in November: the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Wien Modern. Another worth checking is the Cambridge Music Festival in the UK (8th–24th). It includes a Steve ...
Something a bit different for half term. If you are in the area, why not pop along to the Manchester Science Festival (ends 30th October), where a robot orchestra will be performing ...
Conductor Martyn Brabbins has just been appointed Music Director at ENO, the latest attempt to stabilise the troubled opera company (for more thoughts on this from me, see here). From the ENO ...
The programme for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, summarised by Artistic Director Graham McKenzie: This year’s Festival is undoubtedly characterised by the bringing together of often quite disparate forces, to create ...
This year’s Wien Modern programme summarised by its new Artistic Director Bernhard Günther: Where do we come from? Where are we going? And where the heck are we, anyway? These are the ...
It is hard to believe that it is nearly a year since the horrendous Paris attacks led to the cancellation of half of Nice’s Manca Festival programme in November 2015. ...
It was splendid to see the BBC National Orchestra of Wales dedicate the first of their Welsh Foundations Concerts to the memory of Peter Reynolds, composer and biographer to this ...
Ok, so it has very little to do with contemporary music, but if you haven’t seen this musical parody of the second presidential debate you must watch it immediately—it is ...
The Welsh musical community felt a deep sense of shock today at the news of the sudden death of composer Peter Reynolds. He was one of those figures that seemed ...
Do you have a composition website? Ah, the tedious art of self-promotion. If you’re anything like me, you try to put in every positive thing that you’ve done, that one ...
A happy birthday to Steve Reich, who turned 80 yesterday. For those wishing to get to know or revisit some of his key works, take a look at this article, which ...
I was away doing other things when the death of Sir Neville Marriner came through on Sunday, so it feels a little belated to be mentioning it now. Even if ...
Ravi Shankar was working on an opera at the time of his his death in 2012. This is now slated to received its world premiere in May at Leicester’s Curve ...
A date for the diary. On October 1st Sonostream will free livestream Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Donnerstag, the first opera from his monumental Licht cycle. From the Sonostream website: The first of the seven operas, „Donnerstag“ (Thursday), ...
From 7—16th October Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music marks its sixtieth anniversary with a programme of 26 events that feature 45 world premieres, 27 Italian premieres and 24 commissions. Highlights ...
As a teenager I would spend many a happy hour with my head buried in the latest Deutsche Grammophon, Decca or Chandos catalogue, lusting after shiny CDs and the pleasures ...
Recently giving evidence to the UK Government’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, George Vass, Chair of the British Arts Festival Association, and Mark Pemberton, Director of the Association of ...
Chaya Czernowin was born and raised in Israel but has subsequently lived in Germany, Austria, Japan and now the US. Given such a peripatetic lifestyle it is, perhaps, unsurprising that ...
It seems that a contingent of Remainers plans to use the Last Night of the Proms to wave a large number of EU flags. This has provoked angry interventions from Leave ...
Two leading arts figures have this week quit the UK in the wake of the decision to leave the European Union. On 4th September Nicholas Mansfield, the British director of ...
Norman Lebrecht recently drew attention to comments made by Jacques Attali: Je crois personnellement que la musique atonale est une impasse, elle ne correspond pas à la nature même de l’audition, elle ...
The Proms continue until 10th September, though with just one more world premiere to look forward to: Tom Harrold’s Raze on the Last Night. I am a little behind on my listening, ...
It was fascinating reading the responses of UK composers to Brexit on 16th July. So much so that I was inspired to write down my own thoughts in a post on ...
Like many Remainers I tend to latch on to articles that suggest that the whole ugly Brexit business might go away. There has been no shortage of these: the possibility ...
No, not a follow-up to my Brexit post—though I could easily wax lyrical about its advantages in that context—but, rather, a recent CD from Norwegian record label Lawo. Perpetuum Trompetuum is a ...
It would be an exaggeration to say that the dust has settled following the UK’s historic referendum on 23rd June. But now that we are several weeks from that extraordinary ...
I mentioned before that there is no definitive list of all the premieres available at the BBC Proms on the BBC website. So, after a bit of rummaging around, I ...
Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge, Edward Picton-Turbevill (organ), Andrew Nethsingha (conductor). Signum Classics (SIGCD456). If Jonathan Harvey was always considered to be a modernist, he was certainly one of ...
One disappointment in this year’s BBC Proms (15th July–10th September) is that there will be no first night premiere. It has been a great advert for the Proms’ commitment to new music ...
Dan Goren Christian Morris talks to Dan Goren, composer and founder of Composers Edition, about his project to launch a new contemporary music magazine in the United Kingdom & Ireland. ...
Morton Feldman Beckett Material WER 73252 Morton Feldman is not a composer for those in a hurry. His works, especially towards the end of his life, unfold at a glacial ...
The New York Times described the inaugural NY Philharmonic Biennial as ‘Perhaps the most ambitious and extensive contemporary-music festival yet overseen by an American orchestra.’ The 27 events in the second edition ...
Palmyra Concert Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera Orchestra gave a concert at Palmyra yesterday. The recapture of the ancients ruins by Russian-backed troops was one of the few pieces of good ...
York Spring Festival (4th–8th) The seven concerts form part of the YorkConcerts series. There is a good array of new music on offer, from works written by students to more established composers. The ...
Jack Sheen Christian Morris talks to Jack Sheen, composer, conductor and co-founder of the ddmmyy concert series. How did you come to found the ddmmyy series? I wasn’t actually involved ...
The music of Czech composer Martin Smolka was unfamiliar to me until I came across this new disk of his choral works on Wergo. The programme contains his Poema De Balcones; Walden, The Distiller ...
There is something poignant about a world premiere of a composer who is no longer with us. Such is the case with the first performance of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Piano Sonata No. ...
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of a handful of composers truly to have dominated British cultural life, also winning a worldwide reputation with his substantial body of work. Sometimes ...
In my teens I spent many a happy hour digging around in the Welsh Music Information Centre, a repository for scores and recordings of mostly recently written music from the ...
The Bangor Music Festival (1st–6th March) begins with a St. David’s Day choral extravaganza performed by Côr Glanaethwy. The programme includes music by a number of living composers, including Karl Jenkins, Gareth ...
From his exuberant Opus 1, the Sonata for Solo Trumpet written for Elgar Howarth, music for brass has been an important part of the Maxwell Davies catalogue. This disk provides a useful ...
The shenanigans at English National Opera would seem to be an obvious vindication of Micawber’s advice regarding fiscal contentedness. We are entitled to ask, however: to what extent should an arts organisation ...
I don’t often like themed collections of music, especially where they emphasise those qualities – 50 relaxing classics! The Only Classical Chillout Album You’ll Ever Need! – that seem to require that ...
A very happy birthday to Henri Dutilleux, that other great post-war French composer, who would have been 100 on Friday. If you are in Paris for his anniversaire there will be a discussion ...
The death of Pierre Boulez marks the end of a remarkable, and often controversial, era in Western music. The last, and arguably greatest, composer of the postwar avant garde, he ...
The Shadows of Time, Le temps l’horloge, Mystère de l’instant. Henri Dutillleux was a composer always interested in the concept of time. And, as I write this on a cloudy day in ...
A recent release on Harmonia Mundi contains two important Dutilleux works for cello, the diminutive but weightily-argued, Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher, for solo cello and Tout un monde lointain (effectively a cello concerto ...
The works included on Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s recent Dutilleux disk make a good introduction to the composer’s music, even if I think arranging them chronologically would have given a better insight into his ...
I don’t know how many shopping days or sleeps there are until Christmas, but I’m beginning to be fairly stressed about buying presents. There are two problems: people asking me ...
Christmas may come earlier every year, but new music seems to be developing a bit of resilience to the onslaught of carolling, Messiahs and candlelit choirboys. There’s plenty to enjoy ...
Sound and Music has just published the results of its second Composer Commissioning Survey. This year it aims to give a more international perspective, with the Australian Music Centre also providing ...
As well as the Manca Festival here in Nice, there are two other major music European festivals to look forward to in November. The opening concert of Wien Modern (5th–28th November) celebrates the 90th ...
Congratulations to Ludovico Einaudi, whose album Elements debuted at number 12 in the popular music charts this week, the most successful classical composer since Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs in 1992. ...
Björk’s Biophilia in 2011 was a watershed moment for me. A cross-disciplinary project that married music, artwork, games, animation and wider environmental themes, it provided a compelling demonstration of how apps might ...
There was much talk of doom after the close of the UK Sibelius Office in 2012. With hindsight, it now seems that it was justified. The next paid upgrade to the ...
After a wet Pembrokeshire summer I find myself in Nice, capital of the French Riviera. My reasons for being here aren’t entirely (or even partly) musical. So, after a week ...
As planned, I tuned in for the broadcast première of Max Richter’s Sleep on Saturday. I’d initially thought that the 8 hour work, which is designed to be slept through, was a peculiar ...
2015 is a Venice Biennale year, the 10 day music programme running from October 2nd–11th. In total there will be 18 concerts presenting 31 new works, the main composers featured being Pierre ...
On DG there are new recordings of Witold Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto and Symphony No. 2 conducted by the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle. NMC is celebrating the life of Steve Martland with ...
Max Richter’s new album on DG, the 8 hour Sleep is a gigantic set of variations that explore the way music can interact with states of consciousness. The complete work is only ...
One of my favourite radio shows at the moment is Radio 5 Live’s Film Review Programme, dubbed Wittertainment by its devoted army of listeners (‘Hello to Jason Isaacs’). It’s hosted by Simon ...
Members may remember Sound and Music’s commissioning survey from last year, which received a fair amount of gloomy press coverage. My own reaction was a little more positive, though maybe a little contrary; I would, ...
I was enormously impressed to find Naxos disks available on Apple Music. Since starting to use the service, however, I’ve noticed a curious thing. Last month some albums that I ...
Musikfest Berlin (2nd–20th September) Over the course of 19 days there will be 30 events featuring over 70 works by 25 composers, played by 30 orchestras, ensembles and by countless soloists. All ...
The BBC Proms got underway with, quite literally, a bang on Friday with the first night premiere of Gary Carpenter’s Dadaville, fireworks and all. I notice that the BBC appears to ...
As so often is the case, my reaction to the incredible range of new music on release this month is to wonder why the classical music public remains so fixated ...
There have been many how-to’s and reviews written about Apple Music, very few of which have focused on classical, let alone contemporary classical, music. Perhaps the most thoughtful perspective was ...
If you want to find premieres at the 2015 BBC Proms you have a couple of options. On the Proms website, there is a list of all the composers featured. If ...
As well as Boris Pigovat’s Requiem (see below), Naxos have release two solo disks, one of guitar works by Sofia Gubaidulina, including the substantial Repentance and Sotto Voce; and a three-disk selection of piano music by Kaikhosro Shapurji ...
Knowing little about his style, it was with a little trepidation that I listened to Boris Pigovat’s Holocaust Requiem (just released on Naxos), a title that evokes much historical and musical ...
July sees the beginning of two long summer festivals. The BBC Proms runs from 17th July to 12th September, with the first night world première honours going to Gary Carpenter’s Dadaville. I’ve ...
Though back in Pembrokeshire after three months at the Paul Sacher Sitting in Basel, a recent CD release brought to mind an uncomfortable event that occurred whilst I was there. ...
Exciting times in the world of music streaming. Last night Apple announced the not-very-imaginatively-titled Apple Music, their response to dwindling iTunes sales and the streaming threat presented by companies such as ...
Holland Festival (Holland, Amsterdam) 30th May–23rd June The Holland Festival takes place in numerous venues in Amsterdam and features dance, film, the visual arts, theatre and also a wide range of concerts, many ...
Many readers will not have heard of Mervyn Burtch, a Welsh composer who died on 12th May aged 85. For Welsh musicians his is a very familiar name indeed. His ...
Storm is Signum Classics’ new disc of Judith Weir vocal music performed by the BBC Singers under David Hill. It consists of All the Ends of the Earth, for chorus, percussion and harp; her set ...
Time to dismantle the hustings, take off rosettes and breathe a sigh of relief that the UK election, possibly the most tedious campaign I can remember, is finally done with. ...
I was sorely tempted to head from Basel to Prague in May: a month in a beautiful (and relatively cheap) European city with a major music festival sounded promising. As ...
There’s a trio of contrasting discs on Signum Classics this month. Flight is a collection of works by Oliver David (b. 1972) performed by violinist Kerenza Peacock with the LSO. It’s colourful if pretty ...
Whilst flicking between record label websites this afternoon, I came across the Composed app, a collaboration between Classic FM, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon that presents a curated list of classical music for ...
Conversations is John Palmer’s new book published by Composer’s Edition in partnership with Palmer’s own enterprise, Vision Edition. It contains 20 conversations with major figures in contemporary music: 13 composers, 4 players, a conductor, ...
A concert last night by students of the Hochschule für Musik revealed much about standards in Swiss higher education. The ambitious programme contained Cage’s First Construction (In Metal) and Six for six percussionists, Feldman’s Instruments ...
Another couple of interesting concerts here in Basel. I say in Basel, but the first was actually in Germany. One of the curiosities of this city is that its suburbs ...
DG have just reissued Boulez’s Le Domaine Musical collection, which can be added to my earlier guideto the composer’s recordings. It features performances from the seminal Paris concerts between 1956 and 1967, including works by ...
Despite waxing lyrical about the joys of being on the road, the comfort of a Pembrokeshire Christmas almost persuaded me to give up my nomadic lifestyle. I have finally, however, ...
Harpsichord Music by Graham Lynch and François Couperin. Assi Karttunen (harpsichord). Divine Art dda25120. Alex Ross describes Graham Lynch’s style as puzzling ‘over the classic distinction between ‘tonal’ and ‘atonal’, ...
If you’ve not already been, Christian Marclay’s solo exhibition continues throughout March at the White Cube Bermondsey. It features his new video installation Pub Crawl in which he ‘coaxes sound from the empty ...
From March 19th–22nd the biennial London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music is holding a small series of events to keep the spirit of the festival going in its fallow year (the next full festival ...
There are three new albums on Naxos worth exploring this month: wind band music by Salvador Brotons that includes his Symphony No. 6 and Symphonic Movement No. 7; Patric Standford’s Symphony No. 1 ...
If some of Boulez’s pronouncements have given the impression of narrow-mindedness in accepting the music of others, his work as a conductor suggests rather the reverse. Celebrating this part of his career, ...
On March 26th Boulez will turn ninety. Even at this grand old age he hasn’t entirely cast off the image of enfant terrible, the man responsible for some of the most ...
UK premières begin next month with a new work by Ben Comeau, winner of the Cambridge University Composers’ Workshop, which will be playedby the Britten Sinfonia at Wigmore Hall on 4th. ...
The Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival (27th February–1st March) celebrates its 10th anniversary at the end of February. The theme this year, is ‘Biomusic’. Professor Eduardo Miranda, Professor in Computer Music at ...
Also on Wergo (see my previous post) is Japanese composer Keiko Harada’s recent disk, F-fragmentsfeaturing solo piano, accordion and duet of the same. F-Fragments, the work that lends the disk its name ...
Adriana Hölszky: Wie ein gläsernes Meer, mit Feuer gemischt. Works for Organ. Wergo WER 67892. There are some fine recent disks on the German label Wergo. If you are not familiar ...
I don’t know about you, but I’m always relieved when the Christmas season comes to an end. The Christmas tree, such an attractive sight at the beginning of December, is, ...
A morality tale with apologies to Mahler and Charles Dickens. Merry Christmas to all CT members! MAHLER’S GHOST Mahler was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever ...
Though especially associated with early music, I cannot let today pass without lamenting the loss of Christopher Hogwood, one of our finest conductors. For me he was the man who ...
If you are in Scotland today and are suffering from post referendum exhaustion you can cheer yourself up with the thought of the imminent arrival of Sound, Scotland’s festival of new ...
To the Sun and Stars is a new album on Bridge of vocal music by Louis Karchin. The works – American Visions, To the Sun, To the Stars, The Gods of Winter, and ‘A ...
I suppose as a composer I should be filled with self-righteous anger after reading the report. The bottom line is that most composers receive very few commissions, get paid very ...
September sees 80th birthday celebrations for Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle at the BBC Proms. On 6th Septemberthe Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under Oliver Knussen will perform Birtwistle’s Verses for Ensemble, ...
If July’s CD releases were on the parsimonious side the same can not be said of this month, with a deluge that will probably only be surpassed by the August ...
Kevin Stalheim (photo: Joo Photography) Christian Morris talks to Kevin Stalheim, Artistic Director of Present Music, one of the leading contemporary music ensembles in the U.S. with a reputation for ...
The BBC Proms get going today. You can see my July picks in an earlier blog post. Looking further ahead, August concerts include the London première of Sally Beamish’s Violin Concerto ...
Master of the Queen’s Music, or maybe Mistress of the Queen’s Music. Perhaps even Lady of the Queen’s Music. I personally favour Judith Weir using the normal title – it’s about ...
You have to work a little to find the contemporary music amongst the long list of composers represented at the 2014 BBC Proms (18th July – 13th September). Sadly, there is no ...
Not a huge number of new CD releases this month. Even the normally hyperactive Naxos only has one album by a living composer: the song cycles Natural Selection, Songs and Sonnets to ...
Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have big plans for their inaugural contemporary music festival, which has just got underway in New York: “We want the NY PHIL BIENNIAL to galvanize ...
‘There are places in Wales I don’t go:Reservoirs that are the subconsciousOf a people, troubled far downWith gravestones, chapels, villages even…’ Guto Puw is in many respects the quintessential Welsh ...
Over the last week I have watched with fascination this odd-looking structure taking form outside the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel: Today it finally became clear what it was all ...
Harrison Birtwistle turns 80 in July, with birthday concerts starting in earnest this month. One of the best places to enjoy the celebrations is at the Barbican, London. There will be a concert ...
John Palmer Christian Morris talks to John Palmer, a composer of both acoustic and electroacoustic music whose wide influences include Jungian psychology, Buddhism and mythology. Tell us something about your ...
Penderecki Works: Polymorphia, Analasis, Fluorescenes, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Intermezzo, Kosmogonia (Antoni Wit) Naxos NAC-LP002-03 Written in 1959/60, Anaklasis, for 42 string instruments and percussion was the work that established ...
It’s been a busy couple of weeks: leaving one of my jobs, moving house and preparing to leave the country. I shall be spending a month in the lovely city ...
NMC, the label that has done more than most to nurture new music in the UK, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a plethora of new releases and projects. Building ...
The London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music, run by composers Gwyn Pritchard and Andrea Cavallari, is now in its second year. Over four days, from 27th–30th March, there will be nine ...
Electrifying Oboe on Métier is a disc of experimental works for oboe (and sister instruments) by Roger Redgate, David Gorton, Christopher Fox, Edwin Roxburgh, Michael Young and Matthew Wright. Collaboration is ...
Alasdair Nicolson Christian Morris talks to Alasdair Nicolson, composer, Artistic Director of the St. Magnus International Festival and Director of its Composers’ Course. Tell us a little about the origins ...
Peter Maxwell Davies described in a recent BBC interview how close he came to being struck with ‘the curse of the ninth’, having being diagnosed with leukemia that, without treatment, would have ...
Many composers are inspired by their roots, some so much so it would be hard to imagine how their music would sound if they had been born elsewhere. South African ...
It was with great sadness that I learnt of Claudio Abbado’s death on Monday. He is perhaps best known for being appointed as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic following ...
Using their extensive concert database, the people at Bachtrack have put together a fascinating analysis of classical concerts during 2013. Unlike CT, their listings do not concentrate on contemporary music so, using ...
Christmas, for me, has been a time for reflection, for planning ahead and hatching plans for the year to come: compose more, travel more, get on with a planned writing ...
It’s already time to start looking ahead to see what the New Year holds in store for contemporary music. I will do a full preview of 2014 nearer the time, ...
There are three projects on NMC to discover this month. The first is a continuation of their Sinfonietta Shorts venture, which debuted in 2008 as a celebration of the ensemble’s 40th birthday. The ...
There are a few contemporary music treats to enjoy before the classical music world dissolves into a frenzy of yuletide bonhomie. On Friday 6th December there is the London première of Georg Frederick ...
The Boston-based Walden Chamber Players have just released a tribute to Austrian composer Gerhard Schedl. It’s title, A Voice Gone Too Soon, is a reference to his tragic death aged 43: he shot himself ...
John Tavener, who died yesterday aged 69, was one of contemporary music’s most remarkable figures: his ability, especially, to write works that connected with ordinary people was unsurpassed in the ...
Time to enjoy 2013’s last gasp of contemporary concerting before the festive season kicks in… November sees the climax of the Britten centenary celebrations, with his birthday falling on 22nd ...
NMC’s new disk dedicated to the music of Philip Cashian spans some ten years of his output. It includes his Tableaux for small orchestra, Cello Concerto, Dark Flight for six cellos, The House of the Night for oboe ...
‘The trumpet does no more stun you by its loudness, than a whisper teases you by its provoking inaudibility.’ So it proved this weekend at Arcomis’s extraordinary International Brass Event in Cardiff. This is, ...
Following their success with the 2011 International Flute Event, Arcomis (Arts Commissioning) have followed-up with a festival dedicated to brass music. The Arcomis International Brass Event takes place from 10th–13th October in Cardiff. It offers ...
Do you have a piece of music languishing in a bottom drawer? You are rightly convinced of its merits, but do not have the financial means to get it performed? ...
I often write about Naxos and, more obviously (it’s dedicated to contemporary music, after all), NMC in these roundups. Métier, now absorbed by Divine Art Recordings Group, is another label that ...
I start with a reminder that, as well as reading this monthly summary of upcoming contemporary music events, readers should also check CT’s concert diary, to which all members are free ...
August sees another round of centenary releases, many of which revisit older recordings, either in the form of new collections or remasters. Decca’s seminal 1963 recording of Britten’s War Requiem has been ...
Concert centres hosting summer festivals are alive with activity this month. Others, such as Wigmore Hall (here’s their August itinerary, which you can compare with a normal month, here), are taking a ...
Today, I have been trying to think of pieces of music that might be appropriate for the celebration of a royal baby. The Cunning Little Vixen, perhaps, with its story of ...
It’s fashionable to knock Karl Jenkins. Some might say that it is even inappropriate for me to blog here about him. The truth is, however, that his music provokes valid ...
Manchester International Festival 4–21st July The biennial festival consists of dance, theatre, panel discussions and even an urban farm project. There are also some contemporary music events including, on 7th July, an evening ...
Decca doesn’t appear to have made new recordings this month, but, based around its extensive catalogue of works by Britten, conducted by Britten, it has released the first ever complete survey of ...
John Woolrich – photo by Kate Mount As it celebrates it sixtieth anniversary Christian Morris talks to Artistic Director John Woolrich about the past, present and future of the Dartington ...
The 66th Aldeburgh Festival runs from 7th–23rd June. It celebrates the composer’s 100thbirthday year with performances of Peter Grimes in the location that inspired it and The Church Parables in their original venue; an insight into Aldeburgh’s Friday Afternoons singing ...
I’ve just come back from a trip to southern Spain, visiting such wonderful places as the Mezquita at Córdoba, the Alhambra at Granada, Seville Cathedral, Ronda and even hopped over ...
As well as many interesting individual concerts of contemporary music, May sees the earnest beginnings of festival season. The Vale of Glamorgan Festival runs from 9th–18th May in various venues in the county. Highlights include: ...
Anda Anastasescu Christian Morris talks to Anda Anastasescu, pianist, founder of the London Schubert Players, champion of Romanian contemporary music and creator of the European Union-funded Invitation to Composers project. ...
Image from The Firework-Maker’s Daughter It’s hard not to feel cheerful at this time of year. Today, as I look out of my window, I see bright sunlight, budding trees and ...
I’m a pretty ordinary music lover and a very conflicted composer. As a music lover I am just as likely to listen to Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz or ...
Even given that I am no expert on the music of Kenneth Hesketh, my reaction on listening to Wunderkammer(konzert), the first album dedicated to his music was: ‘long overdue’. It seems ...
There are several events worth highlighting in February’s (newly updated) concert listings. Total Immersion has been an enormously successful project over recent years, giving audiences a place to get to know ...
A retelling of Benjamin Britten’s last years in yesterday’s Telegraph brought a tragic note to his centenary celebrations. The article was an extract from Paul Kildea’s new biography: Benjamin Britten: A Life in ...
The Britten centenary is marked this month by a couple of new discs of his cello music. Around Britten on Signum Classics features cellist Matthew Barley and includes Britten’s Third Suite for Cello, ...
My home office setup. The computer is that elegant little box to the right of my main monitor. Many composers I talk to, even if they use a Windows PC, ...
Happy New Year to you all! If you’re feeling over-indulged on ample sufficiencies of turkey, Christmas pud and mince pies, here’s a repast of a different sort: my preview of ...
If you buy one CD set this month or, for that matter, over the next twelve, you should consider A European Odyssey, A remarkable musical adventure with the London Schubert Players. Released ...
Mortuos plango, I mourn the dead. Though annus horribilis is, perhaps, an exaggeration, the grim reaper has done his work unusually well in 2012. This has especially been the case ...
Last year I speculated as to why contemporary music and Christmas don’t mix; as we enter the festive month performances of new music decline as caroling and yuletide cheer take over. ...
If you like your music cerebral and challenging then you should check-out Richard Barrett’s bewitching new CD Dark Matter. It features the ensembles ELISION and CIKADA conducted by Christian Eggen with ...
That the internet has revolutionized the consumption of recorded music is a truism. Artists can self-publish via their own websites or they may circumvent record labels by going directly to ...
Photo: Retorica Christian Morris talks to Harriet Mackenzie and Philippa Mo, who have just released their debut-disk ‘English Violin Duos’ on NMC. Tell us a little about your background before ...
I’ve just updated CT’s concert diary for November. A few things, however, deserve special mention. The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the UK’s largest specialising in this genre, runs from Friday 16th-Sunday 25th November. ...
I noticed with a sense of both amusement and nausea yesterday that EMI, a label that I used to follow avidly, has stooped to releasing Fifty Shades of Grey, The Classical Album. ...
For a bit of Friday fun why not take a look at NMC’s Music Map , an interactive application that explores links between composers? It launches with the composer you have chosen ...
Apart from individual concerts, just updated here, there are several important festivals this coming month. As ever, I’ve not included concerts from these festivals in the main round-up. Instead follow my links ...
Apart from the excellent Retorica disk reviewed in my last post, there are a number of other new recordings worth checking out this month. There are five releases on Naxos. ...
If a programme of music for two violins does not sound like a very appealing prospect, Retorica’s debut disk, just released on NMC, might change your mind. Violinists Harriet Mackenzie and ...
Having written a eulogy to the music of William Mathias not many weeks ago, I managed to forget to mention the upcoming North Wales International Music Festival, which was founded by the ...
There are several festivals that feature new music in September. I’ve included a selection of concerts from them in my monthly round-up on CT’s concert page. As always, however, a more ...
Okay, I admit it: hosting the Olympics was not such a bad idea after all. As I’ve watched I have found myself whooping, shouting, crying with joy and often turning ...
Festival season gets into full swing this month, however, so, with so much going on, it would hard to make that list comprehensive. Instead I’ll also try to summarize the ...
Whilst I’ve just updated CT’s concert listings for August, there is such a range of concerts this month that I would also recommend checking out individual festival programmes, of which many ...
A quiet month. Only Naxos – as usual – has produced new albums of recent music. Three of these are in its American Classics series. There is a recording of ...
On July 2nd, Avid Technology, the company who recently acquired Sibelius Software, announced a major restructuring. This included the shedding of 350 jobs and the sell-off of the audio peripheral division M-Audio and ...
A relatively quiet month in terms of CD releases, but one nevertheless marked by some interesting finds. Naxos, as ever, has released a clutch of new recordings. Two of these ...
Helmut Lachenmann. The latest composer to feature in Tom Service’s guide to contemporary music. I recommend checking out Tom Service’s excellent and evolving guide to contemporary music on the Guardian website. It started ...
I did – just – manage to update CT’s concert directory in time for June a few days ago. However, I also wanted to point out a few festivals that take place ...
I’ve spent the last few days listening to a couple of new CDs. The first involves violinist Hilary Hahn, whose recording of Ives violin sonatas I reviewed a few months back. ...
A summer of flag waving begins in a week with the official celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on 2-5th June, followed, on July 27th, by the opening of the ...
Susanna Eastburn has been appointed as new Chief Executive for Sound and Music. Eastburn is currently Director, Music, Arts Council England and has an impressive track record in the arts ...
Now here’s a funny thing. Last year the BBC Proms website had an excellent guide to the new music that was to appear during the season. This year we have ...
I’ve just updated CT’s concert listings for May. I haven’t, however, included details for three interesting festivals that will be taking place this month, which instead I shall write about here. The Prague ...
KAGEL, M.: Das Konzert/ Phantasiestuck / Pan (M. Faust, Alvares, Ensemble Contrasts, R. HP Platz, Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla, P. Gallois). Naxos 8.572635 The more I read contemporary music reviews and ...
So did anyone sign the open letter to Sound and Music? I received a copy a couple of weeks ago, but in the confusion of moving house forgot about it. ...
A little belatedly, perhaps, I’ve just updated the CT concert diary for April. As ever, the list is not exhaustive, and members are encouraged to add their own concerts to ...
Bregenz Staging of Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune As promised last month, my monthly roundup of concerts has now been moved to CT’s own concert diary page. I’ve just updated the page, ...
After a crazy couple of weeks, including a PhD viva and the presentation of a paper at the Sacher Perspectives Conference in Cardiff (same day as the Six Nations final – bravo ...
I’ve just augmented CT’s concert listings with my own summary of concerts that I have found hither and thither. As usual, however, I’ve not listed individual concerts from festivals, which can be ...
Photo:Judith Weir Christian Morris talks to Judith Weir, whose new opera Miss Fortune will receive its UK première on 12th March at the Royal Opera House. What drew you to ...
A bit of good news for anyone interested in the future of ENO. For the last couple of years Arts Council England have been implementing vicious cut to the funding ...
‘He fiddles with the keyboard, commanding the computer to play an aria for mezzo-soprano and orchestra…In meekly peeping tones, the computer sings a sinuous, long-breathed melody, twisting and turning over ...
A slightly different look to the concert round-up this month. Some will notice that the information here is presented in a very similar way to CT’s own concert listings page. The plan is, from next ...
I often wax lyrical about Spotify on this blog. What makes a resource like this different from the radio is that one can choose what and when to listen, either ...
Recording of the month: Charles Ives Four Violin Sonatas, Hilary Hahn (violin) and Valentina Lisitsa (piano). Deutsche Grammophon. Charles Ives expressed ambivalence in later life towards his Violin Sonatas, believing them ...
Happy New Year to all! Here’s a little preview of what 2012 holds for contemporary music, minus December (for my thoughts on that, see here). I don’t pretend for a minute ...
Some while back I wrote about my experience of visiting the Guggenheim in Bilbao. What I especially found striking was how many people were prepared to visit a gallery of contemporary art ...
There were fewer new CDs this month than usual, so rather than a full review, here’s a quick roundup. On Naxos there are new recordings of William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2 ...
I said last time that December is the month without contemporary music. By this I meant performances of contemporary music. There exists plenty of Christmas music by contemporary composers, though ...
December, the month without contemporary music, is upon us. Looking around concert centres, there are a few contemporary concerts at the beginning of the month that, on the whole, peter ...
My family is not the most imaginative when it comes to Christmas present buying. We’ve long learned that the best way to avoid Christmas day disappointment is to make a ...
Photo:Helen Grime Christian Morris talks to the composer Helen Grime who, amongst many other things, has just started as Associate Composer with the Hallé Orchestra. Tell us something about your ...
Since, as a youngster, watching Mozart feveredly dictating passages of his last work to the dastardly Salieri in Peter Schaffer’s Amadeus I have been a fan of the Requiem Mass. Whilst ...
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//), one of the most important of its type in Europe, runs from Friday 18thNovember–Sunday 27th November. This year there is a special focus of the music of ...
With a good friend of mine, the Mexican composer Mauricio Beltrán, I have just spent a fascinating few days in the Sacher Foundation Library in Basel, Switzerland. Paul Sacher (1906-1999) was a Swiss ...
I said in one of my earliest blog posts that I didn’t envy the job of concert reviewers. Having to make a snap judgement about a piece of music strikes ...
The North Wales International Music Festival begins on 24th September. The programme focuses largely on older repertoire, though there is a composer portrait concert dedicated to the music of Paul Mealor, he of Ubi Caritas royal wedding ...
After a visit to some Basque friends in Northern Spain last week I found myself with a day to spare in Bilbao. The city used to be faceless and industrial ...
Since writing my review of Biophilia last week, I’ve thought a lot about what makes a good CD release. Not everyone is able to release an app or rely on a huge ...
Despite her international musical profile, and the praise heaped upon her by such people as John Tavener and Alex Ross, I confess that Björk’s career has mostly passed me by ...
Music by living composers at the BBC Proms continues in August with performances of Robin Holloway’s Fifth Concerto for Orchestra (4th Aug), Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra (6th Aug), Joby Talbot’s Chacony in G Minor (14th ...
In 2004 the Office of Fair Trading asked the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) to stop providing guidance about commission fees paid to composers, saying it was anti-competitive. To ...
Christian Morris talks to Adrian Hull, director of Arcomis, Arts Commissioning What is Arcomis? I set it up in 2007 when I’d finished my PhD in composition at Cardiff. The ...
Though I’ve already mentioned them in previous posts, I’ll start with two festivals, one already underway, another about to begin. The Cheltenham Music Festival continues until 10th of July (see my preview here for ...
If my review of Nico Muhly’s new CD out on Decca (15th June, below) seemed a bit provisional, that was because it was. I think it is difficult and often dangerous ...
Following their well-received CD of music by Tansy Davies, Troubairitz, in March, Nonclassical (www.nonclassical.co.uk) has just issued Songspin, the debut recording of the vocal trio Juice. Known for their innovative programming and sometimes ...
As the summer festival season gets going, here are my new music concert picks for June. The St. Magnus Music Festival (www.stmagnusfestival.com) runs from 17th–22nd June. Though, as of today, ...
Here is a caricature that some readers may recognize: The performer: He looks at the piece with a sense of unease; it is very technically demanding. The composer is looking ...
14th May saw the latest in the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Total Immersion’ days, this time dedicated to the music of Hungarian composer and conductor, Peter Eötvös. As usual on these ...
Seventy-four concerts, thirteen world premières, six UK premières and eleven BBC commissions. It could only be the Proms. So what has ‘The World’s Greatest Classical Musical Festival’ in store for ...
I was lucky enough to get hold of the Unsuk Chin Total Immersion day before it disappeared from BBC iPlayer this weekend. Four of her pieces from the event were ...
If you want two weeks of great music with some thoughtful programming, the Cheltenham Music Festival (29th June-10th July) could be just the ticket. Aficionados of new music will find plenty to ...
More evidence that the UK is living in artistically straitened times emerged yesterday from the Arts Council of England. A £100m budget cut in October has led to a reduction ...
