New Music Releases on Record Review

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well - none, actually ; but at 11:00pm in a shortened H&N (following Boris Godunov - a work far more "here " and "now" than Mr Watkins' offerings last week - at the Proms) Ivan Hewett chats about recent releases of recordings of New works with Kerry Andrew and Neil Luck. Few details offered:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07jlkj6

... Bryn Harrison is always worth hearing, and the Travis Just piece can only be better than the "middle-aged-geography-teacher-trying-to-sound-with-it-at-the-Sixth-Form-disco"-type language being used to describe it.

Can't it?

Kept well away from frightening the daytime horses on Record Review, just in case anyone discovers something they might find rewarding.

[MrGongGong]

Kerry and Neil are also worth hearing IMV

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Kept well away from frightening the daytime horses on Record Review, just in case anyone discovers something they might find rewarding.

Now I'm confused. It's still another 11.25 hours until Record Review, unless you happen to have have Dumbledore's time turner or a Dr Who tardis.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Now I'm confused. It's still another 11.25 hours until Record Review, unless you happen to have have Dumbledore's time turner or a Dr Who tardis.

Mea culpa - I meant the title to read "New Releases of New Music on Record Review", but I can't edit topic titles! There's nothing on New Music releases on Record Review, but H&N tomorrow night is devoted to the sort of thing that should be on Record Review.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But, hey! There have already been four times as many replies on this Thread as on the last two editions of H&N: re- (as they say) - sult!

[jayne lee wilson]

If it's New Music news and reviews you want, don't forget that Gramophone is generous in its coverage: a Contemporary Composers feature every month (recents: Colin Matthews, Nico Muhly, Lowell Lieberman, Tan Dun) and a regular themed round-up (June's was a "Natural World" on Cowie, Errolyn Wallen, James Wood, Versant, Read-Thomas etc.) and many reviews in its regular pages....

Or you could sign up to the newsletters offered by say, eClassical or Da Capo. The latter label is a remarkable patron of living composers, and the latest batch of New Releases include new albums from Ole Buck (Sinfonietta Works), and the late, very wonderful, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen....
All three albums are compelling, but I can personally recommend the Incontri of PGH. The best works on it are not that 2013 self-named Proms UK Premiere, but Mirror II and Symphony, Antiphony. Very hard to describe their stylistic mix of - minimalist-like pulse or heartbeat, above which the orchestral invention is sometimes wildly violent, sometimes blatantly primitive and bare, sometimes more expressively chromatic and gratifyingly tonal in its cadences. Musical elements co-exist here, often very simply and without interactions, without any "symphonic" development or thematic relationships.
Quotations become part of the fabric too, from Stravinsky's Sacre and Ragtime - which leads a variational sequence (weblike elaborations around, rather than variations upon) into the relentless, brutalising climax of Symphony, Antiphony... to the first bars of Beethoven's Fiddle Concerto, which emerge from a rhythmic motif to lead the weirdly offbeat, quiet contemplations of the last section of the Mirror II...
Occasionally I was reminded of Louis Andriessen's De Snelheid.

The PGH Repriser album has a more hardcore 1960s avantgarde feel, maybe a touch too episodic catalogue-of-instrumental-effects in the title track as 5 groups throw their often primitive, scalic material around without much interaction (though engaging in itself, if intermittently), but Rerepriser [sic!] mixes crunchy electric/bass guitars, tiptoeing harpsichord, pugnacious trumpet/trombone duets and wailing woodwind to exultantly hilarious, & more flowingly (dis)-continuous effect.... and there's also a kind of concerto for a car-door (from a red Skoda) called Traffic, but you only actually hear a carhorn instead (if you can make it out above the rush-hour din) ...
"Our little creature makes it out of the city alive" as Andrew Mellor's excellent note says....

Sorry if this is a bit breathless, I don't really get the time for detailed reports now, and I'm not sure of the interest level here but - the works are so varied it's best to try them out onsite or via streaming anyway....
The sound from Da Capo is marvellous of course, especially in hi-res. I did encounter odd problems with their download manager though (waiting for Their Man to get back to me) so if you do buy anything - stick to manual!

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/

Bryn Harrison review...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/14/bryn-harrison-receiving-approaching-memory-cd-review-orazbayeva-knoop

[pastoralguy]

Your knowledge and enthusiasm never fails to amaze me, Jayne!

[Bryn]

Re. the Richard Gowers recording of Messiaen's Nativité, the cheapest way of purchasing the CD appears to be direct from Music Magpie (somewhat lower cost than via their amaon.co.uk listing).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I see that there's a mini-Record Review included in tonight's Hear & Now (after the pantomime) - "a selection of some of the best new releases of 2018", so there'll be some Ferneyhough in the programme, at least.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001pt1

But a pity the Beeb doesn't think that the regular RR audience are good enough for such repertoire; a couple of years or so ago David Owen Norris* and Sara Mohr-Pietsche had an excellent discussion when doing a similar resumé of that year's New Music releases.

* - yes; I was astonished, too! He gave a number of perceptive and appreciative comments about the Nic Hodges Ferneyhough survey - I could almost forgive him everything before or since because of that. (Just shows what he's truly capable of.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Mea culpa - I meant the title to read "New Releases of New Music on Record Review", but I can't edit topic titles!

I can now!

There's nothing on New Music releases on Record Review, but H&N tomorrow night is devoted to the sort of thing that should be on Record Review.

I see, though, that in a fortnight's time (5th Jan) the two Mc-kers (Andy and Tom) will be "discuss[ing] the latest batch of new releases of Music by contemporary composers" ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

there'll be some Ferneyhough in the programme, at least.

Oh No There Wasn't! Some very interesting selections in Kate Molleson's adjective-infected presentation of her personal choices ... but no mention of the Ferneyhough disc.

[cloughie]

Oh No There Wasn't! Some very interesting selections in Kate Molleson's adjective-infected presentation of her personal choices ... but no mention of the Ferneyhough disc.

Are adjectives contagious?

[cloughie]

I see that there's a mini-Record Review included in tonight's Hear & Now (after the pantomime)

It’s behind you, now!

[Alison]

Are there any new year/new music initiatives planned?

I recall the SMP/DON discussion mentioned above arose from that all too brief season.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Are there any new year/new music initiatives planned?

Nothing to suggest any such initiative is planned this year if the Radio Times is anything to go by, Alison.