London Ear and Now; Sat 25/8/18; 10:15pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Now this one looks really good: Robert Worby presents the first of two programmes recorded at the London Ear Festival earlier this year; a concert given at the Cello Factory by the NEO Sting Quartet from Poland and (phenomenal) pianist Jonathan Powell.

Rebecca Saunders(b1967): Fletch for S4tet (2012)
Luciano Berio(1925-2003): Rounds for Piano (1967); Cinque Variazione for Piano (1953, rev '66)
Seongmin Ji(b1983): iiiiiiiiisiiiyiiiiiieiit for String Quartet (2018)
Dariusz Przybylski(b1984): Green and Maroon, Hommage a Mark Rothko for S4tet (2013)
Iannis Xenakis(1922 - 2001): Akea for Pno5tet (1986)
Akira Nishimura(b1953): Pulses of Light (String Quartet No.2; 1992)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00007cr

Berio, Xenakis, and Saunders are always unmissable composers as far as I'm concerned, and the other three composers are new to me (although I'm sure I've encountered Nishimurai before). The Ji work was written for the Ear Composers' Competition and won joint Third Prize. (It might use similar material/procedures as Ji's earlier 'iiiiiiiiisiiiyiiiiiieiit of 2012, for S4tet, Piano, and Tenor.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Ji's earlier 'iiiiiiiiisiiiyiiiiiieiit of 2012, for S4tet, Piano, and Tenor.)

I wonder if it sounds like it's spelt, ie the latter being an onomatopoeic representation of the former. If so, I'll need to turn my treble up to the top of my sound system range to hear it, given the decline of my upper partials!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if it sounds like it's spelt, ie the latter being an onomatopoeic representation of the former. If so, I'll need to turn my treble up to the top of my sound system range to hear it, given the decline of my upper partials!

Given that the H&N website gives the wrong spelling of Przyzblski's "Hommage", I did attempt to count the number of "i"s there with that on the composer's website, but that was beyond my ageing eyes! (Which is a nice pun, if I'd thought about it! )

[gradus]

Ever visited here?

http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/

[Beef Oven!]

An excellent opening work from Saunders, with the instruments being played not quite orthodoxly! I hadn't heard the second work 'Rounds' before and I really enjoyed it. 5 variations is better than I remember. But the thing that struck me most was the excellence of Jonathan Powell. Everything he does is breathtaking. I really don't understand why he is not talked about more in the music world.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An excellent opening work from Saunders, with the instruments being played not quite orthodoxly! I hadn't heard the second work 'Rounds' before and I really enjoyed it. 5 variations is better than I remember. But the thing that struck me most was the excellence of Jonathan Powell. Everything he does is breathtaking. I really don't understand why he is not talked about more in the music world.

- he's a decent composer himself, too.

[Beef Oven!]

- he's a decent composer himself, too.

I didn't know that he also composes. I should be interested to hear some of it.

[Beef Oven!]

Seongmin Ji's %$£@**&%^ for string quartet was enjoyable, but not as distinctive sonorously as the Saunders piece. For some reason I kept thinking of Gubaidalina's s4tet works. I liked it, though.

[Bryn]

An excellent opening work from Saunders, with the instruments being played not quite orthodoxly! I hadn't heard the second work 'Rounds' before and I really enjoyed it. 5 variations is better than I remember. But the thing that struck me most was the excellence of Jonathan Powell. Everything he does is breathtaking. I really don't understand why he is not talked about more in the music world.

in his role as pianist, he gets a fair few mentions here, especially in relation to his performances of Sorabji's compositions. Since getting married a few years ago, he is no longer based in the UK but still visits fairly often. I do very much miss the concert series he used to organise at the Schott Music recital room. He introduced many underpromoted pianists during those series, in addition to the fine perfromances he himself gave.

[Beef Oven!]

The Xanakis was new to me and I found it uncharacteristic! Or at least it's very different from the 4 or 5 Xenakis CDs I've collected over the last few years. Disarming to hear Jonathan Powell's deep, richly romantic tones with the Neo Quartets modernist inflection. I will come back to this piece as I found it very enjoyable on a first listen. Even though it's a piano quintet, I found the cello to be a most significant part of the music. As I said, I will come back to this piece ......

Nishimura's second string quartet pulses of light was the best of the 21st century music. It had plenty of ryhthm, which is something I miss in a lot of contemporary music, and the second movement was much closer to tradtional modernest string quartet music, complete with so I was in my comfort-zone! The second movement even had plenty of Bartokian pizzicato! A very percussive movemnt, too. I really enjoyed it and would single it out as my favourite piece in the programme.

On the strenght of this last piece, I shall check out some of the orchestral work of Nishimura, shpould any be readily available.

[Bryn]

The Xanakis was new to me and I found it uncharacteristic! Or at least it's very different from the 4 or 5 Xenakis CDs I've collected over the last few years. Disarming to hear Jonathan Powell's deep, richly romantic tones with the Neo Quartets modernist inflection. I will come back to this piece as I found it very enjoyable on a first listen. Even though it's a piano quintet, I found the cello to be a most significant part of the music. As I said, I will come back to this piece ......

Both the Arditti and JACK quartets have recorded Akea, with Claude Helffer and Aki Takahashi respectively, the latter available on CD or DVD. However, beware, the DVD only has lossy data compressed audio, no LPCM, not even for 2 channel stereo.

[Richard Barrett]

The Xenakis was new to me and I found it uncharacteristic!

It is a little, although it does have links to some of the other works he composed around the same time like Horos for orchestra and Keqrops for piano and orchestra - he tended to explore particular materials from various different angles so that, within a given time period, related material will turn up in several pieces, often for greatly different instrumentations. He also quoted his own pieces very frequently, but often in ways that can only be detected by looking at the scores.

I believe I was responsible for organising the first UK performance of Akea, in a series of concerts at the Donmar Warehouse in December 1988 by Ensemble Exposé, which I'd founded together with composer/conductor/violinist Roger Redgate a few years previously. (Ferneyhough's La Chûte d'Icare was another work given its UK premiere in that series.) James Clapperton was the pianist.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I really enjoyed this programme - more so than any edition of H&N since the beginning of May.

The only thing that's annoying me is that I recognised the Nishimura Pulses of Light - so I must have heard it before, but just cannot remember where/when! (It must have been at a HCMF event - but I can't find which one anywhere!)

[Bryn]

I really enjoyed this programme - more so than any edition of H&N since the beginning of May.

The only thing that's annoying me is that I recognised the Nishimura Pulses of Light - so I must have heard it before, but just cannot remember where/when! (It must have been at a HCMF event - but I can't find which one anywhere!)

Why would it have to have been at HCMF? There are, after all, at least three performances to be found on YouTube. It has also appeared on CD at least twice.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Why would it have to have been at HCMF? There are, after all, at least three performances to be found on YouTube. It has also appeared on CD at least twice.

Yes, but I've not quite reached the stage yet where I don't know what works I have on CD, and unless somebody here recommended any of the three YouTube recordings, it's less likely that I would have encountered the work that way - and, moreover, remembered it in such detail - rather than at a Live event. HCMF remains the most likely source - but I haven't been able to find it in any of my programme books. 'Tis a mystery.