Hcmf 2014

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A summary of reviews of the Festival:

http://www.hcmf.co.uk/hcmf-2014-Views-from-the-Press

(Richard Morrison liked the Schubert, too! Don't let this put anyone off - it is an excellent work, even so!)

[hedgehog]

Clicking further there, reveals a crowdfunding scheme in collaboration with Evan Parker for a commission for an emerging composer or artist. Great way to help and get a signed CD along the way. Just a few days to go:

http://www.hcmf.co.uk/crowdfunding

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hcmf-commission-for-an-emerging-composer-or-artist

[Beresford]

I do hope we are to get some of the Philip Thomas, John Tilbury et al Feldman multi-piano concert. Listening to their double CD album did make me yearn somewhat for a little hint of concert ambiance.

There was a loud police siren right after the end, and for some reason more traffic noise than next day's piano concert by Mei Yi Foo, but maybe it was subjective as she played a lot louder. Loved the multi-piano pieces; pianists watching each other, and the character of each pianist was very clear.

[Beresford]

Can't it be moved to London from next year?

Or Montpellier? It's always so cold and wet in Huddersfield.

[edashtav]

New Music From Iceland : Hear & Now 3rd January, 2015

New Music from Iceland
Hear and Now Saturday 3rd January, 2015

A survey of new work , the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra were conducted by principal guest conductor Ilan Volkov who also directs the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Gudmundur Steinn Gunnarsson Sporgýla (World Premiere)

Anna Thorvaldsdóttir Aeriality (UK Premiere)

David Brynjar Franzson "on Matter and Materiality" for cello and orchestra (World Premiere)
Thráinn Hjálmarsson As heard across a room(World Premiere)

Charles Ross His Master's Voice (World Premiere)


Hlynur Adils Vilmarsson bd(UK Premiere)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Severine Ballon [cello] Ilan Volkov [conductor].

I'll concentrate my remarks on just two works:

Thrainn Hjálmarsson’s As Heard Across a Room is formed of a web, a microcosm of tiny notes, squawks and gestures. These discrete elements swirl and build: one senses a shape and an underlying structure: sounds heard across a space that renders them tantalising, and elusive. Very enjoyable, I intend to listen to it again.

The most substantial piece was His Master’s Voice by Charles Ross, a young Scot who lives in Iceland. Frankly, it was old-fashioned, conjuring clearly defined themes that were repeated and built up in a traditional, plodding and predictable fashion. Little by little, a whole orchestra became involved in what was, initially,”the violinist’s tale”. My patience and stamina became exhausted and had I been the dog on the HMV label, I’m sure I’d have barked “C’mon, it’s time for a walk on the wild side,” after 16 or 17 minutes. Please Mr Ross, loosen up, take a few risks – go for it, and give us some sense of the primeval excitement of your new homeland.

[Roehre]

thanks Edashtav, I intend to listen later to it

[edashtav]

Larry Goves' Manchester Hillsong & an Armenian-American's Tribute to Grainger

thanks Edashtav, I intend to listen later to it

HEAR AND NOW Saturday 17the January :
Laurence Tompkins: Dear Dope ; Meeting Point (world premiere)
Larry Goves: A glimpse of the sea in a fold of the hills
Laurence Crane: Octet
Sam Ridout: Tackte: II & III
Jack Bailey (cello)
Dave Bainbridge (banjo, electric guitar)
Aaron Breeze (piano, organ, sampler)
Emily Mowbray (violin)
Marcus Norman (clarinet, bass clarinet)
Tim Rathbone (viola)
Tom Rose (electronics)
Jack Sheen (percussion, conductor)
Harry Fausing Smith (accordion)
Jack Stone (percussion)
Kathryn Williams (alto flute, bass flute)
Recorded at the RNCM Carole Nash Recital Room, Manchester
Charles Amirkhanian: Walking Tune - A Room-Music for Percy Grainger (1986-7)
Charles Amirkhanian (electronics, synthesizer)
Elizabeth Baker (violin)
I heard just 5 of these pieces. The two short starters by Laurie Tompkins (Dear Dope & Meeting Point) I found to be rather amorphous and difficult to pin down. I loved Larry Goves “Glimpse” (its title is taken from R S Thomas) for its luscious lyricism, for its poignancy, for its structural clarity and for its natural arc of development. I suppose that it was a touch backward looking and more than once, I wondered whether the advent of H.K. Gruber on the Manchester scene had subliminally influenced Larry Goves. I’m very partial to Nali’s music and that helped me find my feet and to see a path through Larry’s music that became more dense and arcane as it proceeded. Lauence Crane’s Octet was scored for the most unlikely of combinations including electronic organ and piano=accordion. His music was far from exotic and some passages based or repeated arpeggiated figures underpinned by prosaic chords were static and, for me, lacked sufficient complexity to maintain my interest. My mind wandered back to the infernally dull repetitions that mar the end of Bax’s 7th Symphony. I love "Church Car" by Charles Amirkhanian (you’ll find it on Youtube) a piece that lies in a hinterland between poetry and music so I was full of joyful expectation before his extended “Walking Tune” tribute to Percy Grainger was played. Such fun! Percy Grainger never allowed “good taste” to get in the way of a bright idea and so it is with Amirkhanian’s exotic melange compounded of the sounds of walking on gravel, humming birds, frolicking Aussie ducks, a solo violin, and a Bach aria. These elements were mixed with the steady hand of a master. A worthy tribute to the composer who is 70 this year. It was called Room-Music but it was full of the outdoor brio and energy that marked Percy Grainger.