Ensemble Modern; SoundState, 2019; H&N, Sat, 9/2/19; 10:15pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Another later start time - the Met dragging its feet again.

Tom McKinney presents a quartet of works performed by Ensemble Modern, conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni at the SoundState Festival on London's South Bank last month.

Rebecca Saunders(b1967): Fury II (for solo Double bass and ensemble; UK premiere)
Martin Grütter(b1983): Die Haütung des Himmels (UK Premiere)
Vito Žuraj(b1979): Runaround (UK Premiere)
Rebecca Saunders: Skin (for soprano solo and ensemble)

with Paul Cannon (Double Bass) and Juliet Fraser (soprano) the soloists in the Saunders works.

No "manifestos", here deeds take the place of words, and performers and composers get on with the business of creating new ways of writing for orchestra. I'm very much looking forward to this!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002h7j

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And here's the South Bank guide/introduction to the Music of Rebecca Saunders (which, as I never tire of mentioning, I adore!):

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/blog/soundstate-rebecca-saunders-behind-the-music

[Quarky]

And here's the South Bank guide/introduction to the Music of Rebecca Saunders (which, as I never tire of mentioning, I adore!):

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/bl...hind-the-music

Many thanks.

H&N much improved this week. All of the items were very good, and what I feel as current "state of the art". Skin was very intriguing, and certainly the use of the voice was completely acceptable, as far as I was concerned.

[Serial_Apologist]

Many thanks.

H&N much improved this week. All of the items were very good, and what I feel as current "state of the art". Skin was very intriguing, and certainly the use of the voice was completely acceptable, as far as I was concerned.

I have to say, I still find Ms Saunders' music hard to relate to: for me there's something inert about its language, I dunno. The two intervening works were wonderful, though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks.
H&N much improved this week. All of the items were very good, and what I feel as current "state of the art".

- A really good selection of works, and the news that Saunders has been awarded the Ernst von Siemanns award is excellent, and justly deserved. A great composer.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/17/british-composer-rebecca-saunders-wins-ernst-von-siemens-music-prize

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have to say, I still find Ms Saunders' music hard to relate to: for me there's something inert about its language, I dunno.

Gosh! The sheer "ertness" of her Music is what most immediately attracted me to it - it is so alert; constantly changing, moving from wave to wave, these tides of sound ...

<sigh> - isn't it astonishing how the same Music can affect different listeners in such diametrically contrasting ways! All part of the rich tapestry, no doubt.

[Quarky]

Listened to Yes this evening, which is available on YouTube, having a spare 90 minutes. I missed the recent H&N broadcast.

In the same vein as Skin, at the risk of oversimplification.

Maybe Rebecca, being now 250,000 Euro the richer, can afford to set herself up with her own website?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Listened to Yes this evening, which is available on YouTube, having a spare 90 minutes. I missed the recent H&N broadcast.
In the same vein as Skin, at the risk of oversimplification.

The same thought occured to me - it is an "oversimplification", but one which might form the basis of an understanding of the similarities and differences between the two works.

Maybe Rebecca, being now 250,000 Euro the richer, can afford to set herself up with her own website?

I hope that she spends the time instead creating more Music!

[Beresford]

Listened to Yes this evening, which is available on YouTube, having a spare 90 minutes. I missed the recent H&N broadcast.
In the same vein as Skin, at the risk of oversimplification.
Maybe Rebecca, being now 250,000 Euro the richer, can afford to set herself up with her own website?

There is a website: https://www.rebeccasaunders.net

I listened to SKIN this morning, and I was bowled over by it. Superb, as you might expect from someone who takes the spoken words of Beckett and Joyce as inspiration. Is the libretto available anywhere? I don't think I have heard any British music since Britten that was so strong in merging technique and having something to say (but I have not heard that much). Very pleased that she has won the Siemens Prize, at the age of 51.

I had heard YES as broadcast from Huddersfield, but I became too distracted by the vocal technique, which was new to me, to understand the whole thing.

[edashtav]

I made a New Year's Resolution to catch up with H&N. The polarity displayed in this thread between inert and alert: contrasting reactions to the music of Rebecca Saunders, a composer I've "overheard" rather than "heard" in the past, persuaded me to listen to Fury II. I found its title strange for I found the piece to be meticulously controlled, carefully imagined and having a clear trajectory. There was nothing splashly, wild or frenzied about it and silence had place and importance. Rebecca knew what she wanted to do and, as far as I could judge, achieved it. She draws on a wide palette of sound sources but does so with precision, she is the opposite of some electroacoustic composers who write as if they believe that a wild, frenzied concatenation of novel sounds and timbres will suffice. If I say that I loved it, will Rebecca murmur with Congreve, "Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd. Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd"?

[edashtav]

Martin Grütter(b1983): Die Haütung des Himmels followed the Saunders. It was colourful, dramatic but not always freshy imagined. Newish wine in Old Bottles: too conservative for my taste.

[Quarky]

There is a website: https://www.rebeccasaunders.net

I listened to SKIN this morning, and I was bowled over by it.

Thanks for link.

[Beresford]

I made a New Year's Resolution to catch up with H&N. The polarity displayed in this thread between inert and alert: contrasting reactions to the music of Rebecca Saunders, ......., she is the opposite of some electroacoustic composers who write as if they believe that a wild, frenzied concatenation of novel sounds and timbres will suffice. If I say that I loved it, will Rebecca murmur with Congreve, "Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd. Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd"?

Speaking of woman scor'd, I could find no trace of Rebecca Saunders on R3 yesterday - International Women's Day, with only women composers. What is going on in the corridors of R3 selectors? She is the only British person, other than Ferneyhough, to win the Siemens prize since Britten, linking her achievement to Messiaen and Stockhausen, and she seems to be ignored. I only came across her thanks to Ferney on these forums, and her music (from the little I know so far) is much more interesting than most of yesterday's offerings.

As compensation, I heard her piano piece "Crimson" played by the very committed Nicholas Hodges in a France Musique concert broadcast on 27th February and still available to hear, if you navigate the France Musique website by dates and not by the "concerts" tab.

[Beresford]

Speaking of woman scor'd, I could find no trace of Rebecca Saunders on R3 yesterday - International Women's Day, .....

But I have just discovered many of her compositions free on SoundCloud