Ferneyhough

[Joseph K]

I’m trying to Bryn,

Seeing how early in the morning you posted this, I think I can forgive you for thinking I'm Bryn.

[Mandryka]

Seeing how early in the morning you posted this, I think I can forgive you for thinking I'm Bryn.

Yes, I woke up feeling absolutely ravenous at about 3 in the morning so decided to go down and eat some smoked salmon sandwiches and drink cheap red wine. Went back to bed and slept like a baby till 10.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, I woke up feeling absolutely ravenous at about 3 in the morning so decided to go down and eat some smoked salmon sandwiches and drink cheap red wine. Went back to bed and slept like a baby till 10.

First they came for the folklorists, but I couldn't Morris dance, so said nothing; then they came for the semi-detached dwellers, but I wasn't middle class, so said nothing; then they came for the serialists, but I would have been the last one to have a row with anybody!

Apparently red wine will soon be produced in Britain, according to Country File, owing to rising temperatures. No more of that imitation German white stuff then. Actually, I thought it already was.

[Joseph K]

Incidentally, the score video of the sixth quartet is back up (I've just watched/listened to it) on youtube along with others that weren't there before - all the string quartets I think.

[ahinton]

Incidentally, the score video of the sixth quartet is back up (I've just watched/listened to it) on youtube along with others that weren't there before - all the string quartets I think.

...except the first one whose ms. I perused, albeit more briefly than I would have liked to do, several years ago...

[Mandryka]

Sonatas. Love ρ.

[Joseph K]

The score following video of La Terre has appeared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5isRPTn6GE

[Joseph K]

What a masterpiece this is. The first movement is all simmering intensity and anticipation. Then the next movement features fantastical polyphonic textures that leave me breathless. And how the instruments coordinate rhythmically, and in other respects shows a great deal of thought ...

(1) Ferneyhough - String Quartet No. 3 (1987) (with score) - YouTube

[RichardB]

After enthusiasm like that I'm just going to have to find time to listen to it as soon as I can. I haven't heard it for a while. The thing I remember most clearly is some furious viola solo moments. Is that the beginning of the last movement? Never mind, I'll find out for myself. What a great composer. And greatly underrated these days too.

[Serial_Apologist]

After enthusiasm like that I'm just going to have to find time to listen to it as soon as I can. I haven't heard it for a while. The thing I remember most clearly is some furious viola solo moments. Is that the beginning of the last movement? Never mind, I'll find out for myself. What a great composer. And greatly underrated these days too.

[Mandryka]

I just saw that Firecycle Beta is a "symphonic torso" - how determinate is the score? Why "torso"? Where is Richard Barrett when we need him?

[oliver sudden]

I have a vague feeling it may well have been planned as something bigger. Lemma-Icon-Epigram is a similar case. (As is Gesang der Jünglinge I think, although of course that’s not by Brian.)

I had a read through this whole thread just after I arrived and couldn’t help noticing how much attention was paid to Brian on his 70th compared to last year on his 80th. Not just here of course but in the concert world in general. Even Darmstadt basically seemed to ignore him—only a couple of solo pieces, which after his decades teaching there seemed pretty stingy.

[silvestrione]

Yes I went to the 'total immersion' day on his 70th, or whatever they called it then. Sat through that orchestral piece that is just a wall of sound. I heard the 2nd String Quartet live, with the Ardittis, twice I think, once in Colchester, and really liked it.

I did a CD cull this morning, and took them down to the Oxfam shop, and am glad now, that, hesitating, I kept the Arditti disc with the 2nd and 3rd quartets, and the Sonatas.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have a vague feeling it may well have been planned as something bigger. Lemma-Icon-Epigram is a similar case. (As is Gesang der Jünglinge I think, although of course that’s not by Brian.)

I had a read through this whole thread just after I arrived and couldn’t help noticing how much attention was paid to Brian on his 70th compared to last year on his 80th. Not just here of course but in the concert world in general. Even Darmstadt basically seemed to ignore him—only a couple of solo pieces, which after his decades teaching there seemed pretty stingy.

The problem is that this kind of music (in a manner of speaking) whose a dense complexity in detail and relationship to the past Ferhenyhough has been exploring and developing for more than half a century, is out of step with a critical mindset that has come to doubt its own presuppositions about the place in multiculture of advanced avant-garde art, where self-exculpation among the commentariat passes for anything goes, and marketability desiderata count for more than curation and reductionist accessibility issues in determining the musics to be promoted.

[silvestrione]

The problem is that this kind of music (in a manner of speaking) whose a dense complexity in detail and relationship to the past Ferhenyhough has been exploring and developing for more than half a century, is out of step with a critical mindset that has come to doubt its own presuppositions about the place in multiculture of advanced avant-garde art, where self-exculpation among the commentariat passes for anything goes, and marketability desiderata count for more than curation and reductionist accessibility issues in determining the musics to be promoted.

Yes, this thought occurred to me also (though not so eloquently!): it's a different cultural scene now, even to 10 years ago.