Episodes
Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
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20071110 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces the premiere of a new work by German composer Heiner Goebbels, Songs of Wars I Have Seen, a setting of texts by Gertrude Stein reflecting on the everyday experiences of life during wartime. The concert also includes Heinrich Biber's vivid Battalia, and another war-related piece by Goebbels, based on Leonardo da Vinci's notes on how to paint a battle scene. Biber: Battalia a 10 in D Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Goebbels: Schlachtenbeschreibung (UK premiere) Roderick Williams (baritone) London Sinfonietta Sian Edwards (conductor) Goebbels: Songs of Wars I Have Seen (world premiere) Matthew Locke: The Tempest (excerpts) Sian Edwards (conductor). The premiere of a new work by Heiner Goebbels, Songs of Wars I Have Seen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20071124 | Tom Service introduces a concert of contemporary music given by the Ulster Orchestra at this year's Sonorities Festival in Belfast. There is also a rare performance of Morton Feldman's Piano from a 2005 concert by Stephen Gutman. Simon Holt: Minotaur Games Philip Hammond: Die ersten Blumen Ian White: Island Kevin Volans: Cello Concerto Gavriel Lipkind (cello) Gregory Rose (conductor) Morton Feldman: Piano Stephen Gutman (piano). A concert of contemporary music given by the Ulster Orchestra at the Sonorities Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20071201 | Tom Service introduces a concert of contemporary music for string quartet from the 2006 Sonorities Festival in Belfast. Plus a performance of Gary Carpenter's After Braque, inspired by the works of the French painter. Tim Souster: Hambledon Hill James MacMillan: Memento Christopher Fox: 1-2-3 Michael Alcorn: Leave No Trace. Stephen Montague: String Quartet No 1 Smith Quartet Gary Carpenter: After Braque Ensemble 10/10 Clark Rundell (conductor). Tom Service introduces music for string quartet from the 2006 Sonorities Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20071208 | Ivan Hewett introduces new music with a visual element, such as film or light shows, and music from Liverpool as it shapes up to be City of Culture. Plus to mark the 80th birthday of musique concrete pioneer Pierre Henry, excerpts from his Messe de Liverpool. Other music includes a selection of new 10-minute pieces from Ensemble 10/10's recent 10th birthday concert in Liverpool. Ian Gardiner: L'escalier en spirale Gary Carpenter: Sonatinas Howard Skempton: Piazza Kenneth Hesketh: Ein Lichtspiel Christian Forshaw (alto saxophone) Clark Rundell (conductor) Anna Meredith: Flak London Sinfonietta Sound Intermedia Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor). Ivan Hewett introduces new music with a visual element and music from Liverpool. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20071222 | Robert Worby presents a programme of music recorded by the ensemble Apartment House. He is then joined by composers Michael Parsons and James Saunders to discuss the past, present and future of avant-garde and experimental music. James Saunders: #121006 (for 2 dictaphones, radio, theremin, bic lid, Feedback set up, CD and mini speakers, and long hacksaw blade) Markus Trunk: the rhythm mostly, but also the simple and natural words (for 3 wind instruments) John Lely: The Harmonics of Real Strings (for cello) Tim Parkinson: Quartet (4 percussionists) Apartment House: Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) Andrew Sparling (clarinet) John Lely, Tim Parkinson, James Saunders (auxiliary instruments, electronics). Robert Worby presents a programme of music performed by the ensemble Apartment House. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20071229 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch, Annette Morreau and Ivan Hewett explore the year's new music highlights Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080202 | Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2007 Sara Mohr Pietsch and Robert Worby introduce highlights from the festival. 5/5. Featuring music from Fred Frith performed by the composer with the Arditti Quartet, Dutch ensemble Insomnio playing music by Tim Hodgkinson and Martijn Padding, and sound artist Janek Schaeffer demonstrating his installation Extended Play. Frith: Lelekovice Frith: Fell; Allegory Fred Frith (guitar) Frith: Cold (working title) Hodgkinson: Nomos-Yozu Padding: Eight Metal Strings Ulrich Pohl (conductor). With music by Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson and Martijn Padding. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080209 | Ivan Hewett introduces a performance of a new chamber opera The Shops, a humorous exploration of kleptomania and compulsive shopping by composer Edward Rushton and librettist Dagny Gioulami. Rushton: The Shops Darren Abrahams (tenor) Richard Burkhard (baritone) Phyllis Cannan (alto) Anna Dennis (soprano) Louise Mott (mezzo-soprano) Paul Reeves (bass) The Opera Group Patrick Bailey (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents a performance of a new humorous chamber opera The Shops. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080216 | As the South Bank's Luigi Nono restropective Fragments of Venice draws to a close, Tom Service, in discussion with Christopher Fox, looks back at the life and work of the Italian composer. They concentrate on how his work developed and how it has taught us how to re-approach the musical experience. The programme features music recorded at the festival performed by the London Sinfonietta under Diego Masson, as well as a look forward to the UK premiere of Nono's ground-breaking opera Prometeo. Nono: Variazione canoniche sulla serie dell'op 41 di Arnold Schoenberg; Incontri; No hay caminos, hay que caminar...Andrej Tarkowskij; Prometeo (excerpt) Diego Masson (conductor). Tom Service and Christopher Fox look at the life and work of Italian composer Luigi Nono. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080223 | Cut and Splice Robert Worby presents Hear and Now's annual electronic music event, co-curated with the Sonic Arts Network. This year the theme is Food, with the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra amplifying raw vegetables, Charles Amirkhanian weaving concrete poetry from favourite food names and Parkinson Saunders playing a quartet for plastic cups. Lee Patterson and Helena Gough create soundscapes from frying eggs and roasting seeds. Plus noise/body art by Randy HY Yau and Sudden Infant. ~Hear And Now's annual electronic music event, featuring the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080301 | Alwynne Pritchard explores the world of improvisation and its role in contemporary classical music, in a discussion with composer Richard Barrett and writer John L Walters. The programme includes a recorded studio session by Elliott Sharp and Christian Marclay. Sharp/Marclay: Improvisation Elliott Sharp (guitar, soprano saxophone, electronics) Christian Marclay (turntables, electronics) Barrett: Adrift Sarah Nicolls (piano) Richard Barrett (electronics) Tchaikovsky, arr. Oswald: Violin Concerto Jon Rose (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor) Bailey, arr. Burn: Three Rhodri Davies (harp) Angharad Davies (violin) Nikos Veliotis (cello). Exploring improvisation in modern classical music, with composer Richard Barrett. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080308 | Tom Service introduces a concert recently given by South African composer Kevin Volans and his long-term duo partner Jill Richards, who perform a selection of the composer's music for two pianos, including two world premieres. Featuring interviews with Volans and choreographer Siobhan Davies. Kevin Volans, Jill Richards (piano duo) Volans: Nine Beginnings; Cicada; Mr Handel's Return (world premiere); Shiva Dances (world premiere). South African composer Kevin Volans and Jill Richards perform his music for two pianos. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080315 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a concert given in February as part of the Lancaster International Concert Series, to celebrate the work of Claude Vivier, the highly regarded but little-known Canadian composer who was murdered in 1983 at the age of 34. With contributions from music writer Paul Griffiths. BBC Singers Psappha Nicholas Kok (conductor) Vivier: Et je reverrai cette villa etranger; Glaubst du und die Unsterblichkeit der Seele; Journal. A concert celebrating the work of Claude Vivier, the Canadian composer killed in 1983. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080322 | Featuring the world premiere of Edward Cowie's BBC commission INhabitAT. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080405 | A concert including works by Francisco Lara, Hans Abrahamson and Simon Holt. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080412 | A concert by the Arditti Quartet and a report on writing for quartet. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080419 | Musical modernism new and old, with classic works of the 1960s alongside works by Downie. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080426 | Ivan Hewett presents music by contemporary British composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080503 | Alwynne Pritchard presents world premieres by Stoneham, Hughes, Sierra and Kay. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080510 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces works that combine instruments with electronics, plus works from an international convention on electroacoustic music. Enno Senft and the London Sinfonietta under by Pierre-Andre Valade give the UK premiere of Michael Jarrell's Droben Schmettert Ein Greller Stein for double bass and ensemble. And in a series of concerts given in Glasgow, the Diotima Quartet perform Jonathan Harvey's fourth String Quartet with electronics developed at IRCAM, a European institute for musical science. Plus Pedro Rebelo from the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast discussing recent winners from the 2007 International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces works that blend instruments with electronics. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080531 | Alwynne Pritchard introduces new music from Germany, in conversation with the featured composers. Charlotte Seither: Music for Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra Andre de Ridder (conductor) Enno Poppe: Thema mit 840 Variations Mark Knoop (piano) Seither: All'aperto BBC Singers Celso Antunes (conductor) Poppe: Obst Seither: Gran Passo Iris Ter Schiphorst: Zerstoren II Andre de Ridder. New orchestral and piano music by German composers Enno Poppe and Charlotte Seither. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080607 | Tom Service is joined by Philip Clark for a selection of new music releases on CD, and introduces concert recordings of recent chamber works by English composers Colin Matthews and Alexander Goehr. Colin Matthews: The Island (world premiere) Claire Booth (soprano) Nash Ensemble Paul Watkins (conductor) Alexander Goehr: Clarinet Quintet (world premiere, BBC commission) Michael Collins (clarinet) Nash Ensemble. With new music releases on CD and works by composers Colin Matthews and Alexander Goehr. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080809 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces highlights of two concerts from the BMIC Cutting Edge Series in 2007. Larry Goves: My Name is Peter Stillman. That is not my real name Jonathan Green: Into Movements Michael Clarke: Emmeshed II Sarah Nicholls (piano) Sam Hayden: Schismatics Yannis Kyriakides: Hyperamplified Anne La Berge (flute) Mieko Kanno (violin) Claire Edwardes (percussion) Plus an interview with Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid. Tom Service talks to Miller about his new book Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Highlights of concerts from the 2007 BMIC Cutting Edge Series, with music by Larry Goves. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080823 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert given at Glasgow's City Halls in March 2008, featuring two new concertos pitting piano (or pianos) against the orchestra. Julian Anderson: Stations of the Sun BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Rolf Hind: Maya-Sesha (world premiere) Rolf Hind (piano) Detlev Glanert: Concerto for two pianos (world premiere) Philip Moore, Simon Crawford-Phillips (pianos) Martyn Brabbins (conductor). A concert given at Glasgow's City Halls, with concertos by Rolf Hind and Detlev Glanert. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080830 | Ivan Hewett introduces music by Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who talks about the medieval influences behind her work Miroir des temps. Plus a recording of Chris Dench's piece for solo piano Passing bells: night, performed by Philip Mead at the 2007 Spitalfields Festival in London. Unsuk Chin: Concerto for violin and strings Hae-Sun Kang (violin) BBC Philharmonic James MacMillan (conductor) Unsuk Chin: Miroirs des temps (BBC Commission) Hilliard Ensemble Chris Dench: Passing bells: night Philip Mead (piano). The BBC Philharmonic in music by Unsuk Chin. Plus Philip Mead in a work by Chris Dench. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080913 | Alwynne Pritchard presents new German music for voices and for piano. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080920 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces recordings from this year's Vale of Glamorgan festival including a new work by Piers Hellawell inspired by the work of sculptor David Smith. Henryk Gorecki: Three Dances Guto Puw: Oboe Concerto Piers Hellawell: Agricolas for clarinet and orchestra (World Premiere) Pawel Szymanski: Quasi una sinfonietta David Cowley (oboe) Robert Plane (clarinet) BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Michal Dworzynski Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces recordings from the 2008 Vale of Glamorgan festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20080927 | Robert Worby presents a tribute to the late composer Mauricio Kagel, who died in September 2008. In a previously unheard interview, Kagel discusses his early days, being self-taught and surrealism. Composer Christopher Fox joins Robert to discuss Kagel's legacy. And there's another chance to hear Acustica, Kagel's epic late 1960's work for experimental sound producers and loudspeakers, performed by Apartment House and recorded at the 2005 Cut and Splice festival. Plus sound artist Bill Fontana talking about his new installation Speeds of Time 2008 at Tate Britain. Robert Worby presents a tribute to the late composer Mauricio Kagel. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081004 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert focusing on new music by Middle-Eastern composers given at Cadogan Hall, London, in June 2008. Hiba Al Kawas (soprano) Wafaa Safar (ney) Bassem Alkhouri (qanun) Nieuw Ensemble Garry Walker (conductor) Franco Donatoni: Refrain 1 Nouri Iskandar: Mawal Kurdeli Rachida Ibrahim: Music for Ney and Chamber Orchestra Saed Haddad: On Love 1 Tan Dun: Circle with four trios, conductor and audience Rasheed Al-Bougaily: Deewaan Hiba Al Kawas: Araftu Beirut. A concert focusing on new music by Middle-Eastern composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081011 | Alwynne Pritchard reports on a multimedia night at London's Spitalfields Festival called Rational Rec, with songs, music-theatre, performance art and discussion. Chris Newman: Songs Watch Em Bend 2:16 Time Continues 3:24 Good Day after Good Orgasm 1:46 Adam de la Cour (voice) Michael Finnissy (piano) Diana Burrell: One Man Band 6:07 Mark Knoop (piano, percussion and accordion) Performance artist Sheila Ghelani talks to Alwynne Pritchard (music - The Wanderer by Dion and Don't Fence Me In by Bing Crosby) Chris Fox: Generic Composition No. 3 for solo cello 4:25 Alex Waterman (cello) Trond Reinholdtsen: 13 Music Theatre Pieces 11:55 Plus Minus Ensemble: Vicky Wright (clarinet) Tom Pauwels (elec guitar) Mark Knoop (piano, accordion) Roderick Chadwick (piano) Joanna Bailie and Matthew Shlomowitz (auxilliary) Visit the Hear and Now Homepage to view the images as you listen. The Vacuum Cleaner: Live Talk (excerpt) Michael Finnissy: Dust 2;23 Adam de la Cour, Andrew Toovey, Matthew Shlomowitz & Alex Waterman (vocals) Tape That: Mixed Pickles 5:36 Joanna Bailie: On And Off 9.42 Plus-minus Ensemble Review of Rational Rec by Felicity Mukherjee Alwynne Pritchard reports on the Rational Rec multimedia night at Spitalfields Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081025 | Tom Service presents a concert given at Glasgow's City Halls, featuring works by British composer Nigel Osborne and the first performance of a BBC Commission by Anna Meredith. Monica Brett-Crowther; Elizabeth McCormack (mezzo-soprano) Simon Johnson (trombone) Scott Dickinson, Andrew Berridge (violas) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Clement Power (conductor) Nigel Osborne: Woman - reworked arias from the composer's operas 32:43 Anna Meredith: Barchan - for trombone and orchestra (BBC commisssion, world premiere) 10:39 Nigel Osborne: East 13:20 Nigel Osborne: Transformations 1 - for two solo violas 10:28 Marina Adamia: The Birth of Enkidu. 9:53 A concert featuring works by Nigel Osborne and a BBC commission by Anna Meredith. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081101 | Robert Worby presents a rare performance of pieces from Stockhausen's Aus Den Sieben Tagen, recorded at the 2008 Cut and Splice Festival in London. These text pieces from 1968 are performed by leading new music interpreters including Maja Ratkje, Phil Minton, Aleks Kolkowski, David Behrman, laptop quartet 2021 and Apartment House ensemble. The first piece is performed by Neil Luck and Matthew Knowles, who will prepare, as instructed by the composer, by fasting and remaining solitary for four days beforehand. Gold Dust 5:17 Neil Luck (guitar) Matthew Lee Knowles (piano) Meeting Point 8:09 Seth Josel (guitar) Phil Minton (vocals) Maja Ratkje (vocals) Unlimited 20:18 Twentytwentyone (Laptop quartet) Connection 15:18 Frank Gratkowski, Ian Mitchell, Dave Ryan, Andrew Sparling (bass clarinet) Robin Hayward (tuba) Intensity 15:10 Reinhold Friedl (inside Piano), Phil Minton (vocals), Mark Wastell (perc), Marc Weiser (electronics), Seth Josel (guitar), Michael Vorfeld (perc), Nikos Veliotis (cello), Maja Ratkje (theremin), Aleksander Kolkowski (violin), Dave Ryan, Ian Mitchell, Andrew Sparling, Frank Gratkowski (bass clarinet), Gordon MacKay, Patrycja Kujawska, Mai Kawabata, Sara Hubrich (stroh violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (stroh cello), Robin Hayward (tuba), Twentytwentyone (laptop quartet) Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081108 | Robert Worby presents a rare performance of pieces from Stockhausen's Aus Den Sieben Tagen, recorded at the 2008 Cut and Splice Festival in London. These text pieces from 1968 are realised by leading new music interpreters including Maja Ratkje, Phil Minton, Aleks Kolkowski, David Behrman, laptop quartet 2021 and the Apartment House ensemble. Arrival 5:00 All Performers Upwards 12:00 Cranc (violin, cello, harp), Mark Wastell (tamtam, objects), Reinhold Friedl (inside piano), Michael Vorfeld (percussion ) Communion 14:00 Onstage: Reinhold Friedl (inside piano), Michael Vorfeld (percussion ), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Gordon MacKay, Mai Kawabata, Lina Lapelyte (laptop), Patricia Kujawska, Alex Kolkowski (Stroh violin) In Gallery: Bass clarinet quartet: (Frank Gratkowski, Andrew Sparling, David Ryan, Ian Mitchell), Robin Hayward (tuba), Phil Minton, Maja Ratkje (voices), Seth Josel (e. gtr) It 9:35 Frank Gratkowski (sax), Robin Hayward (tuba), Rhodri Davies (harp), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), David Berhman (violin & laptop), Arturas Bumsteinas (laptop) Set Sail For The Sun 21:53 With premieres, live concerts and studio sessions from the best new music groups. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081115 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a programme of the music from Karlheinz Stockhausen, performed by the London Sinfonietta, as part of the Southbank Centre's 2008 Stockhausen series. With music for orchestra including a UK premiere of Zodiac, and the world premiere of a segment of Klang for tape, entitled Urantia. Helena Rasker (contralto) Oliver Knussen (conductor) Kathinka Pasveer (sound projection) Igor Kavulek (sound engineer) Drei Lieder 18:58 Klang for tape 'Urantia' (world premiere) (19:49) Zodiac (UK premiere) (34:58) Five Star Signs; Five More Starsigns. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a programme of music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081122 | Tom Service presents a concert from the 2008 London Jazz Festival featuring Arve Henriksen (trumpet) and Iain Ballamy (saxophone) with the London Sinfonietta, including compositions by Ballamy and Peter Tornquist as well as improvisations. Peter Tornqvist: Crossing Images (34:43) Thomas Stronen (drums) Tim Harries (bass) Jan Bang (live sampling) London Sinfonietta: (Daniel Pailthorpe (flute) Duncan Prescott (clarinet) John Orford (bassoon) Charles Mutter (violin) Lionel Handy (cello) Andrew Toovey: Fast Net (7:30) Anna Meredith: Axe Man (2:35) John Orford (bassoon with fuzz box FX) Iain Ballamy: Gold Acre (world premiere) (22:35) London Sinfonietta: Daniel Pailthorpe (flute) Duncan Prescott (clarinet) John Orford (bassoon) Charles Mutter (violin) Lionel Handy (cello) Richard Causton: Sleep (2:50) Group Improv (9:40) All performers Tom Service presents a concert of new jazz played by Arve Henriksen (trumpet) and ensemble Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20081129 | Ivan Hewett presents recordings by Liverpool-based Ensemble 10/10 and talks to their director Clark Rundell. Plus Tom Service on the role of awards in new music ahead of the 2008 British Academy of Composers Awards ceremony in London. Mark Simpson: Nur Musik, for oboe and ensemble 9:42 Jonathan Small (oboe) William Marshall: The River Is the Unconscious Thief and Destroyer of Its Surroundings 4:48 Gary Carpenter: Closing Time, for tenor and ensemble 15:30 Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts (tenor) John Casken: The Dream of the Rood, for four voices and ensemble 29:20 Hilliard Ensemble Clark Rundell (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents recordings by Liverpool-based Ensemble 10/10. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20090124 | In a performance given at London's Barbican as part of the Stockhausen Composer Day, Robert Worby presents the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Stockhausen's meditative work Inori. Written in 1973-74, Inori is based on prayer-like gestures interpreted on stage by a mime and a dancer. The expressive movements, performed by the two silent soloists and drawn from a variety of religious practices, are mirrored in the response of two orchestral groups. Robert is also joined by Stockhausen authority Robin Maconie to discuss the piece. Stockhausen: Inori(68:46) Kathinka Pasveer (dancer-mime) Alain Louafi (dancer-mime) David Robertson (conductor) The BBC Symphony Orchestra perform Karlheinz Stockhausen's meditative work Inori. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20090711 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch heads to Suffolk for the 2009 Aldeburgh Festival. She speaks with new artistic director Pierre-Laurent Aimard as he presents his first festival, and introduces a selection of musical highlights. Centenarian American composer Elliott Carter's Fifth String Quartet is performed by the Quatour Diotima, and Carter is recorded in conversation with Laurent-Aimard, who premieres two short piano works. Semper Dowland, semper Dolens - the first of two premieres from this year's other featured composer, Harrison Birtwistle - is a reflection on the work of John Dowland, sung by tenor Mark Padmore. Oliver Knussen: Coursing (5:15) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Oliver Knussen (conductor) Elliott Carter: String Quartet No 5 (18:22) Carter: Fratribute (2:54) and Sistribute (1:01) Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) Birtwistle: Semper Dowland, semper dolens (45:16) Mark Padmore (tenor) London Sinfonietta Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor). Aldeburgh Festival: Music by Oliver Knussen, Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20090718 | From the Aldeburgh Festival, Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents world premieres of works by Helen Grime, Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle and talks to the composers. Helen Grime: A Cold Spring (world premiere) 9:56 Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Oliver Knussen (conductor) Elliott Carter: On Conversing with Paradise (world premiere) 11:46 Leigh Melrose (baritone) Harrison Birtwistle: The Corridor (world premiere) 48:27 Euridice - Elizabeth Atherton (soprano) Orpheus - Mark Padmore (tenor) London Sinfonietta Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor). Aldeburgh Festival: World premieres by Helen Grime, Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20090808 | Ivan Hewett presents a portrait of Unsuk Chin, and discusses her music with Ilan Volkov and andrew Zolinsky Chin: Xi for ensemble & electronics (22:54) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Chin: Piano Concerto (24:55) Andrew Zolinsky (piano) BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya Akrostichon-Wortspiel (15:47) Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Kazushi Ono Piia Komsi (soprano) CD: Deutsche Grammophon 477 511-8 Fantaisie mécanique (12:37) Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Patrick Davin A portrait of Unsuk Chin, including her Piano Concerto presented by Ivan Hewett Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20090912 | Ivan Hewett is joined by Julian Anderson to discuss music by Denys Bouliane, Philippe Leroux and Gyorgy Ligeti. Donatienne Michel-Dansac (soprano) Rolf Hind (piano) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Denys Bouliane: Du fouet et du plaisir (for piano and ensemble) 17:24 Philippe Leroux: Voi(rex) - for voice, six instruments and electronics 24:35 Gyorgy Ligeti: Concerto for piano and orchestra. 25:56 Ivan Hewett is joined by Julian Anderson to discuss music by Bouliane, Leroux and Ligeti. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20091010 | Tom Service presents highlights from Shuffle, the first of three events recorded for Hear and Now at London's King's Place. Peter Wiegold and his improvising group 'notes inegales' perform works by Christian Marclay and Wiegold himself, as well as a collaborative performance incorporating musical 'postcards' by young composers selected by the UK network Sound and Music. Peter Wiegold: La Belle Epoque 7:24 Martin Butler (piano) Peter Wiegold (electric piano) excerpts from 'Shuffle I: Postcards' 9:41 musical ??postcards', around the theme of 'shuffle' or 'swing', submitted by Six Sound and Music shortlist composers. Peter Wiegold: Earth and Stars (UK premiere) 19:14 notes inegales/Peter Wiegold Christian Marclay: Shuffle (excerpt) 20:12 notes inegales/Peter Wiegold. Tom Service presents works by Peter Wiegold and Christian Marclay. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20100227 | Ivan Hewett presents new chamber and orchestral music recorded in London and Austria. Johannes Maria Staud: Fur Balint Andras Varga (3:57) Luke Bedford: Chiaroscuro (8:46) Thomas Larcher: My Illness is the Medicine I Need (13:54)* Ed Bennett: for Marcel Dzama (11:10 Patricia Rozario (soprano)* Fidelio Trio Recorded on the 12th of December 2009, Wigmore Hall Olga Neuwirth: Remnants of Songs...an Amphigory (30:37)* Rebecca Saunders: Traces (15:43) Antoine Tamestit (viola)* Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Peter Eotvos (conductor) New music by Ed Bennett, Luke Bedford, Thomas Larcher, Olga Neuwirth and Rebecca Saunders. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20100731 | Does music have to be composed, or can it be made up on the spot? Ed McKeon introduces new works that combine both approaches, recorded at festivals in Huddersfield and Sligo: Richard Barrett and fORCH: part of fOKT 6 Morla: This May Not Have Happened Morla and the Smith Quartet And from the Bangor New Music Festival, a fully-composed orchestral work that travels from Mozart's Requiem to an imagined Utopia: Pwyll ap-Sian: Gwales BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn. Ed McKeon presents new music by fORCH, Morla and Pwyll ap-Sian. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20100904 | Ivan Hewett presents a rare chance to hear the unmistakable music of Berlin-based British composer and singer Chris Newman. Recorded at a concert at this summer's Spitalfields Festival, with pianist Michael Finnissy and the Kurbis Ensemble, directed by James Weeks, who curated the concert. With contributions from James Weeks and the composer himself. Scenes From Old Age (world premiere) Michael Finnissy (piano) Abstract Kurbis Ensemble, James weeks (director) Four Students Format (world premiere) Chris Newman (voice) MichaelFinnissy (piano). Ivan Hewett presents the music of Berlin-based British composer and singer Chris Newman. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20110423 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert of contemporary British chamber music, including 3 world premieres, in conversation with the composers. Simon Holt: The Torturer's Horse Michael Berkeley: Three Rilke sonnets David Matthews: Horn Quintet Mark-Anthony Turnage: A Constant Obsession Claire Booth (soprano) Mark Padmore (tenor) Richard Watkins (horn) Nash Ensemble Lionel Friend (conductor) Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London on 23rd March. The Nash Ensemble perform new music by Holt, Berkeley, Matthews and Turnage. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20110611 | Ivan Hewett presents some recent music from two generations of Danish composers recorded at this year's 'BALTIC+' Canterbury Sounds New Festival. Niels Marthinsen: The Monkey Bent Sørensen: Deserted Churchyards Per Nørg倀rd: Momentum Simon Steen-Andersen: Praesens Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen: Tonkraftwerk Jakob Kullberg (cello) ŀrhus Sinfonietta Søren K. Hansen (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents recent Danish music from the 2011 Sounds New festival in Canterbury. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20110910 | Robert Worby presents a concert of new British music, in conversation with the curators of the event, Richard Baker and Andrew Burke. Philip Cashian: Bone Machine Laurence Crane: Movement for 10 Musicians Martin Suckling: Candlebird Christopher Fox: KK Bryn Harrison: Six Symmetries Colin Matthews : Night Rides Leigh Melrose (baritone) London Sinfonietta conducted by Nicholas Collon Plus, Christopher Fox considers the use of the humble cowbell in contemporary music, from Boulez to the Rolling Stones. This concert was part of the South Bank Centre's Festival Of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations in May 2011. In the adventurous spirit of the orginal 1951 festival, it looks to the future with several world premieres (by Colin Matthews, Martin Suckling and Philip Cashian). Christopher Fox's piece KK is scored for saxophone and five cowbells, which prompts his talk for this programme about the use of this simple percussion instrument in some of the most subtle and complex contemporary music, such as the work of Pierre Boulez, as well as it's simultaneous employment to drive a hard beat in rock classics like the Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Woman. Robert Worby presents a concert of new British music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20110924 | Ivan Hewett introduces two major works using recorded human voices as source material, and the next in our Hear And Now Fifty series. Steve Reich: City Life BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Sound Intermedia conducted by Jean-Micha뀀l Lavoie Voices recorded on the streets of New York City are woven into an extended instrumental piece, with verbal phrases giving rise to melodic and rhythmic shapes. ~Hear And Now Fifty': featuring signal works from the second half of the last century. Film-maker Sophie Fiennes explains why she chose Gy怀rgy Ligeti's Atmosph耀res for the soundtrack of a film about artist Anselm Kiefer, and Paul Griffiths explains its significance in Ligeti's development of cloud-like musical structures. Followed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of the work, conducted by Jonathan Nott. Trevor Wishart: Globalalia This multi-channel electronic piece uses syllables taken from 26 different languages, to create a series of elaborate variations on the sounds of language itself. Producer PHILIP TAGNEY. Ivan Hewett introduces music by Steve Reich, Ligeti and Trevor Wishart. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20111001 | Tom Service presents music from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Debut Sounds project by young Korean composer Mihyun Woo, in a piece that takes its cues from the work of Dutch artist M.C. Escher. There is also a performance of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's rarely performed work for two conductors and orchestra Theseus Game. In the next in our Hear And Now Fifty series, featuring signal works from the second half of the last century, novelist and poet Mark Haddon explains what it is about Elliott Carter's String Quartet No.3 that reminds him of an argumentative family meal, and Paul Griffiths explains Carter's use of metric modulation, followed by the Arditti Quartet's full performance of the work. Mihyun Woo - Metamorphose Clement Power (conductor) Clement Power & Thomas Blunt (conductors) Arditti Quartet. Tom Service presents music by Mihyun Woo, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Elliott Carter. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120317 | Tom Service presents highlights of a concert from Psappha, with music including the UK Premiere of Sally Beamish's The Sins and Anthony Payne's A Day in the Life of a Mayfly. And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, writer and critic Paul Driver nominates Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs For A Mad King, a piece that inspired him to compose as a schoolboy in Manchester; and composer/chansonnier HK Gruber describes the extreme experience of performing the part of the King. Anthony Payne - A Day in the Life of a Mayfly Sally Beamish - The Sins * Peter Maxwell Davies - Eight Songs for a Mad King ** Jonathan Best, actor* Kelvin Thomas, baritone** Psappha. Psappha perform music by Sally Beamish, Anthony Payne and Peter Maxwell Davies. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120616 | Robert Worby presents composer Hugh Wood's 80th birthday concert recorded recently at the Bath Festival. Also includes 20x12 commissions by Emily Howard, Michael Wolters and David Bruce. b 27 June 1932 Horn Trio Pirani Trio String Quartet No 2 Piatti Quartet New Work for solo piano (BBC Commission - world premiere) Joanna MacGregor (piano) -------- Emily Howard - Zatopek! commissioned by Second Movement Michael Wolters - The Voyage commissioned by Stan's Cafe David Bruce - Fire commissioned by The Opera Group. Robert Worby presents the music of Hugh Wood performed at the Bath Festival, plus 20x12. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120707 | Ivan Hewett presents the first complete broadcast of Hans Abrahamsen's shimmering chamber work Schnee, performed by Ensemble Recherche and recorded at the 2010 Huddersfield Festival. And in this week's Hear and Now Fifty, violinist Alexander Balanescu recounts his part in Michael Nyman's groundbreaking score for Peter Greenaway's 1982 feature film The Draughtsman's Contract. With commentary from Gillian Moore. Ivan Hewett presents music by Hans Abrahamsen and Michael Nyman. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120721 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces the premieres of new choral works by Judith Bingham, Hugh Wood and Lauri Supponen, performed at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival by the BBC Singers conducted by David Hill Plus the latest instalment of new compositions from the PRS/Music Foundation's 20x12 project for Olympic year, commissioning 20 12-minute works from around the UK. This week's works are Technophonia by Oliver Searle (working with Drake Music Scotland), Our Day by Conor Mitchell (working with Opera Northern Ireland) and TAT-1 by fiddler and composer Aidan O'Rourke (working with Creative Scotland) Hugh Wood: From the Pisan Cantos LXXXI (BBC commission, world premiere) Giles Swayne: Magnificat Judith Bingham: London Haiku (BBC commission, world premiere) Lauri Supponen: The Dordrecht Humaphone (BBC commission, world premiere) David Hill (conductor) 20 x 12 commissions: Aidan O'Rourke: TAT-1 Adrian Searle: Technophonia Conor Mitchell: Our Day. The BBC Singers in new choral works by Judith Bingham, Hugh Wood and Lauri Supponen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120804 | Ilan Volkov conducts a concert curated by Richard Ayres whose music, at once playful and serious, unashamedly juggles a m退lange of accessible musical styles. Presented by Robert Worby, with contributions from Ayres, Laurence Crane, and Ilan Volkov. Marko Nikodijevic: GHB/Tanzaggregat Laurence Crane: West Sussex Folk Material Richard Ayres: No. 9 MacGowan Richard Ayres: No. 46 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov, conductor And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti champions the music of Giacinto Scelsi, the Italian composer from an aristocratic background whose music looks to the east for inspiration. Uitti plays the 1960s 'Ygghur', Sanskrit for 'catharsis', the final part of Scelsi's autobiographical 'La Trilogia'. With commentary from Paul Griffiths. Giacinto Scelsi: Ygghur Frances-Marie Uitti, cello. Music by Richard Ayres, Laurence Crane, and Marko Nikodijevic. Plus Scelsi's Ygghur. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120811 | Iceland is a country of extremes. The scale of its economic crash was impressive, to say the least, and its unpronounceable volcano grounded air traffic around the world. In the summer, the sun never sets and in winter it never rises. But in the permanent darkness of January, as Icelanders eat rams' testicles to appease Thorri, the god of midwinter, there is an exceptional new music festival. Reykjavik's Dark Music Days takes place in one of the most exciting modern buildings of recent years, the multi-venue Harpa concert hall and cultural centre. Harpa has helped Dark Music Days transform from being a local affair promoting Icelandic music, into a major international festival with composers from around the world vying to get their music performed there. And Ilan Volkov, the new Chief Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, has also propelled the festival to the front rank, and expanded its scope to include large-scale compositions. In this programme, Robert Worby talks to critic and long-time Icelando-phile, Hilary Finch to find out more about the thriving Dark Music Days and Icelandic music, including works recorded at this year's festival. Plus, in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, Four Tet's Kieran Hebden explains why Silver Apples of the Moon by the American composer Morton Subotnick stands out for him as a classic of early electronic music. Wire magazine's Rob Young provides some background to the work, which was created on a Buchla synthesizer at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and the first piece of music to be composed for two sides of an LP. Giacinto Scelsi: Hymnos Ilan Volkov, conductor Atli Ing lfsson: Mani Hugi Gudmundsson: Orkestur Morton Subotnick: Silver Apples of the Moon (part A). Radio 3's flagship contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120818 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents five new pieces written for the Cultural Olympiad as part of the 20x12 festival celebrating some of the UK's most exciting composing talent. The music by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Aaron Cassidy, Julian Joseph, Gavin Higgins and Liz Liew and Andy Leung was recorded across the UK in Edinburgh, Nottinghamshire and London and is introduced by each of the composers. With performers including the vocal ensemble Exaudi, the Rambert Orchestra and prisoners and staff at HMP Lowdham Grange. Aaron Cassidy: A Painter of Figures in Rooms James Weeks [conductor] Julian Joseph: The Brown Bomber Ross Anderson [Trombone] Jackson Mathod [Trumpet] Patrick Clahar [Clarinet] Mark Hodgson [Bass] Mark Mondesir [Drums] Julian Joseph [Piano] Gavin Higgins: What Wild Ecstasy Paul Hoskins [conductor] Liz Liew and Andy Leung: XX/XY Liz Chi Yen Liew [violin] Andy Leung [electronics] Fran Bartlett [cello] Dennis Kwong Thye Lee [xiao] Bernie Gardner [drums] Urban Youth Junk Band [percussion] Mark-Anthony Turnage: Beyond This Prisoners and staff from HMP Lowdham Grange. Sara Mohr-Pietsch with highlights from New Music 20x12 - part of the Cultural Olympiad. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120825 | Ivan Hewett introduces the last two of the 20x12 series of commissions for the Cultural Olympiad, from Sheema Mukherjee and Richard Causton. The first - Bending the Dark - brings together Eastern and Western instruments in a celebration of heroic aspiration and the second, for the substantial forces of the European Youth Orchestra, hymns the work of William Blake, whose epic poem 'Twenty seven Heavens' graphs the trials and tribulations of the soul as it aspires heavenwards. It also celebrates the unsung quarters of East London, now placed centrestage as Olympic aspirations and ideals are put to the test. Plus, in the Hear and Now Fifty, Gavin Bryars' mould-breaking 1971 score 'Jesus Blood Never Failed me Yet' - a work which came about almost accidentally, when Bryars alighted on a recording of an elderly homeless man singing a few lines of a Victorian hymn. Robert Hewison puts the case for why the work is important and David Toop puts it in its cutlural and historical context. Ivan Hewett with commissions from Sheema Mukherjee and Richard Causton, plus Gavin Bryars. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20120922 | Robert Worby introduces a rare broadcast of a late work by John Cage, Music for Thirteen, performed by Ilan Volkov with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and recorded as part of the Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik. And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, sound artist Kaffe Matthews and writer David Toop celebrate the work of another pioneering American experimentalist, Alvin Lucier. I Am Sitting in a Room explores the complexities of the human voice and the acoustic properties of enclosed spaces. John Cage: Music for Thirteen Frank Denyer, Maya Dunietz (piano) Ilan Volkov (conductor) Alvin Lucier: I Am Sitting in a Room (original recording). Music by John Cage and Alvin Lucier. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20121013 | Ivan Hewett presents music recorded at this year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival which has been committed to celebrating work by living composers for over four decades. Qigang Chen: Yuan Philip Glass: Violin Concerto Chloe Hanslip, violin BBC National Orchestra of Wales Clark Rundell, conductor And this week's Hear and Now Fifty, novelist and critic Philip Hensher makes the case for Per Norgard's Symphony No.2, one of the first works in which the Danish composer used his own 'infinity series' to determine melody and form. With commentary from Paul Griffiths. Per Norgard: Symphony No. 2 Clark Rundell, Conductor. Ivan Hewett presents music performed at the 2012 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20121020 | Tom Service introduces contemporary German orchestral music: Aribert Reimann's Neun Stücke and Matthias Pintscher's cello concerto entitled Reflections on Narcissus. Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with cellist Joshua Roman. And in this week's Hear and Now Fifty, composer John Woolrich nominates Igor Stravinsky's last completed work with orchestra, Requiem Canticles. Commentator Paul Griffiths explains how this sparsely scored pocket requiem, written in 1966 in a modern serial style, contains many of the hallmarks of his very earliest pieces. Tom Service with new music by Reimann and Pintscher, plus Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20121027 | Tom Service introduces three orchestral works written by leading continental composers within the last six years and played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Pintscher. With their inspiration as varied as the the bloodline of a murderer, and the acoustic states of being that take the imagination to its very limits, these three works call for forces ranging from the one-to-a-part world of the sinfonietta to the full panoply of the modern symphony orchestra. Behind at least two of them lies the influential figure of G退rard Grisey whose Partiels of 1975 is cited as one of the defining works for three generations of spectralist composers. In this week's Hear and Now Fifty, British composer Julian Anderson casts the spotlight on Partiels with commentary from writer Paul Griffiths. Magnus Lindberg: Souvenir for ensemble (2010) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Matthias Pintscher (conductor) Kaija Saariaho: Adrianna Songs (2006) [UK premiere] Patricia Bardon (mezzo-soprano) Gerard Grisey: Partiels, for 18 musicians (1975) Ensemble Court-Circuit, Pierre-Andr退 Valade (conductor) Mark Andre: ...hij...1 (2008/10) [UK premiere] BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Matthias Pintscher (conductor). Tom Service introduces three orchestral works written within the last six years. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20121103 | Ivan Hewett introduces a recording of Wolfgang Rihm's opera Jakob Lenz, based on the Buchner play about a celebrated 18th century poet who descends into insanity. And in this week's Hear and Now Fifty, Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Graham McKenzie celebrate German composer Heiner Goebbels, and his Suite for Sampler and Orchestra, part of Surrogate Cities, a cycle of works from 1994. Heiner Goebbels: Suite for Sampler and Orchestra Junge Deutsche Philharmonie Peter Rundel (conductor) From approximately 10.40pm: Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz Jakob Lenz: Andrew Shore (baritone) Pastor Oberlin: Jonathan Best (bass-baritone) Christoph Kaufman: Richard Roberts (tenor) ENO Orchestra conducted by Alex Ingram Directed by Sam Brown English National Opera's production at Hampstead Theatre, recorded last April. Ivan Hewett presents music by Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130427 | Almost New York' is the playful title for this concert curated by London-based composer Dai Fujikura. Fujikura has long been a frequent visitor to New York to collaborate with its International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) - so much so, that they describe him as 'almost a New Yorker'. And 'Almost New York' is also the title for Alvin Lucier's 2001 work - one of several by actual New Yorkers. Also in tonight's programme is a recording of Toru Takemitsu's Tree Line, a work for chamber orchestra from 1988 inspired by a row of acacias that were visible from the composer's study window. Presented by Tom Service in conversation with Dai Fujikura. Music by Elliott Carter, Alvin Lucier, John Zorn, Felipe Lara and Dai Fujikura. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130608 | Tom Service presents new music by Brian Ferneyhough and Benedict Mason as part of Radio 3's celebration of British Music, in recordings made at last year's Festival d'Automne in Paris. And in the first of four interviews with British composers turning 70 this year, Ferneyhough talks to Robert Worby about his early landmark score Sonatas for String Quartet and the ways in which it pointed to his later works. And we pay tribute to the great French composer, Henri Dutilleux who died towards the end of last month at the age of ninety seven. His haunting orchestral work Timbres, espace, movement is inspired by a Van Gogh's "The Starry Night." As the artist wrote at the time of painting it: "I have a terrible need for religion. And so I go outside at night and paint the stars." Tom Service presents music by Benedict Mason and a world premiere from Brian Ferneyhough. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130622 | Ivan Hewett introduces music by two female British composers of the 20th-century: 12-tone pioneer Elisabeth Lutyens' operatic journey through the literary islands of Sophocles, Shelley, Rabelais and Robert Louis Stevenson; and South African-born Priaulx Rainier's setting of Edith Sitwell's poem The Bee-Keeper, first performed by Peter Pears at the 1969 Aldeburgh Festival. And continuing our series of interviews with British composers turning 70 this year, Robin Holloway reflects on his early career in conversation with Robert Worby, focusing on his orchestral work Scenes from Schumann. Ivan Hewett introduces music by Elisabeth Lutyens, Priaulx Rainier and Robin Holloway. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130706 | Music by Arne Gieshoff, Alasdair Nicolson, Andrew Simpson and Stuart MacRae. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130713 | Tom Service presents the first of two programmes from the 2013 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Tonight the music ranges from a frantically paced ten minute symphony by the American, Sebastian Currier to Chinese-born Qigan Chen's Enchantements oubli退s in which he seeks to capture something of the powerful beauty of the natural world. Also on the bill is the concert premiere of a captivating percussion concerto by Mark Bowden, the BBC NOW's composer in residence. Sebastian Currier: Microsymph (UK premiere) Mark Bowden: Heartland Concerto (Concert world premiere) Julian Warburton (percussion) Sebastian Currier: Quanta (European premiere) Qigang Chen: Enchantements oubli退s BBC National orchestra of Wales Richard Baker (conductor). Tom Service presents orchestral music by Sebastian Currier, Qigan Chen and Mark Bowden. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130803 | Robert Worby introduces music by Karlheinz Stockhausen recorded at the BBC's Total Immersion event in 2009 including a selection from the Klavierstucke, and the Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, both from the early 1950s; plus studio guest Paul Griffiths reviews a new box-set of the complete works of Pierre Boulez. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Klavierstucke I-IV; Kontra-Punkte; Klavierstuck VII Nicolas Hodges (piano) Guildhall New Music Ensemble Richard Baker (conductor). Robert Worby presents music by Stockhausen and Boulez in conversation with Paul Griffiths. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20130928 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a recording of a concert given in Eindhoven earlier this year by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with artists from Iceland's Bedroom Community label, including works by Valgeir Sigurdsson and Daniel Bjarnason, plus Nico Muhly's Cello Concerto with soloist Oliver Coates. The South Bank Centre's Gillian Moore gives us a preview some of the new music events to be featured this autumn as part of the year-long The Rest is Noise season, and we hear works for piano by American composers Philip Glass and Missy Mazzoli performed by Bruce Brubaker in a concert recorded at London's King's Place in May. Missy Mazzoli: Orizzonte Bruce Brubaker (piano) Daniel Bjarnason: Bow to String Nico Muhly: Cello Concerto Valgeir Sigurdsson: Dreamland Oliver Coates (cello) Ilan Volkov (conductor) Philip Glass: Mad Rush Bruce Brubaker (piano). Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces music Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurdsson and Philip Glass. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20131012 | Tom Service is joined by Andrew McGregor for a round-up of the latest new-music releases. There's something for everyone as they weigh up the merits of Kaija Saariaho's Nymph退a for string quartet and electronics, concertos by Morton Feldman, Wofgang Rihm, and Timo Andres, and orchestral works by Stephen Gardner and Brett Dean. Tom Service is joined by Andrew McGregor for a round-up of the latest new music releases. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
20150307 | On the eve of this year's International Women's Day, Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces an all-female edition featuring a concert by rarescale, the ensemble founded by alto flute player Carla Rees and which specializes in contemporary repertoire for low flutes. Tonight's programme also includes works by two of the young composers selected for the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Inspire competition; and in this week's Composers' Rooms, we visit the home studio of Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music. Kaja Bjorntvedt: Skye Light Sungji Hong: Black Arrow Elizabeth Winters: Image Unfolding Karen Gourlay: Dreamscape Shiva Feshareki: she cried Eve Beglarian: Until It Blazes Kaija Saariaho: Spins and Spells Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly Sophie Viney: Sonatina in 7 & 5 (World Premiere) Recorded at The Forge, London, last October Grace Mason: The Bitter Cut for viola and ensemble Matthias Wiesner (viola) Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Michael Seal (conductor) Lucinda Rimmer: Felucca on the Nile for cello and ensemble Clare Hinton (cello) Duncan Ward (conductor) @bbcradio3 #womensday. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces music by the group rarescale and visits Judith Weir. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | ||
2012 Witten Days For New Chamber Music | 20130316 | Robert Worby presents highlights from last year's Witten Days for New Chamber Music, the long-running annual event which takes place in western Germany. Tonight we hear new works from Italy, Denmark, Germany and England, two for double string quartet and two for piano and ensemble. Plus a recording of last Saturday's London premiere of Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen's String Quartet No.3. Hans Abrahamsen: String Quartet No.3 Vertavo Quartet Recorded at the Barbican, London, last Saturday Marko Nikodijevic: gesualdo dub / raum mit geloschter figur Pauline Post (piano) Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor) Mauro Lanza: Der Kampf zwischen Karneval und Fasten Arditti Quartet JACK Quartet James Clarke: 2012-S Hans Abrahamsen: Piano Concerto Brigitta Muntendorf: Sweetheart, Goodbye! Nicola Grundel, vocals Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor). Highlights from the 2012 Witten Days for New Chamber Music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
2013 British Composer Awards | 20131207 | For the last decade, the British Composer Awards have provided a platform for the best in new music from the UK. Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present a selection of highlights from the Awards ceremony held last Tuesday at Goldsmiths' Hall in the City of London and talk to some of the winning composers and hear their music. Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch report from the 2013 British Composer Awards. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
2014 British Composer Awards | 20141206 | For over ten years the British Composer Awards have provided a platform for the best in new music from the UK. In this special edition of Hear and Now, Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present highlights from the 2014 Awards ceremony held last Tuesday at Goldsmiths' Hall in the City of London. They'll be talking to some of the winning composers, and offering a chance to hear some of their music. Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch report from the 2014 British Composer Awards. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
2015 British Composer Awards | 20151212 | For over ten years the British Composer Awards have provided a platform for the best in new music from the UK. In this special edition of Hear and Now, Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present highlights from the 2015 Awards ceremony held last Wednesday at BFI Southbank in London. They'll be talking to some of the winning composers, and offering a chance to hear some of their music. Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch report from the 2015 British Composer Awards. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
840: New Music For Piano | 20170819 | Ivan Hewett introduces a concert of new music for piano given earlier this summer at St John's Church, Waterloo, as part of the Waterloo Festival. The concert was curated by 840, a London-based experimental music concert series. Zubin Kanga, who joins Ivan in the studio, performs works by Laurence Crane, Tim Parkinson, Bryn Harrison, Nicholas Peters, Sergei Zagny, Kate Moore, Alex Nikiporenko, Andrew Hamilton and himself. 840 was founded in 2014 by the composers Alex Nikiporenko and Nicholas Peters, and each event focuses on a particular instrument or chamber instrumentation. Also tonight, the second of four archive features celebrating the 40th edition this year of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Andrew Kurowski talks to Robert Worby about the festival's 'Electronic Soundworlds' of the 1980 and 90s, including Iannis Xenakis's Taurhiphanie, and Luigi Nono's La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura, recorded by the BBC in 1995 and performed by Irvine Arditti (violin) and Andr退 Richard (sound diffusion). Image (c) Justyna Wichowska. New music for piano, including works by Kate Moore, Laurence Crane and Bryn Harrison. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
A Scream And An Outrage, Bruce Brubaker | 20130921 | In conversation with composer Nico Muhly, Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert recorded at the Barbican in London in May, plus part of a piano and electronics recital given at London's Kings Place in May. Nico Muhly: Outrage (World Premiere) BBC Singers David Lang: David: "man-made" (World Premiere) SOPercussion, BBC Symphony Orchestra Paola Prestini: Oceanic Verses (European Premiere) Hila Plitman (soprano), Christopher Burchett (baritone), Helga Davis (vocalist), Claudio Prima (vocalist), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra Jayce Ogren (conductor) Nico Muhly: Drones and Piano (UK Premiere) Bruce Brubaker (piano and electronics) Philip Glass: Etude No.5 Bruce Brubaker (piano). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music by Nico Muhly, in conversation with the composer. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Aldeburgh And Cheltenham Festivals 2011 | 20110716 | Tom Service presents contemporary music recorded last month at the 2011 Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals, and talks to composer Charlotte Bray, who has works premiered at both festivals Elliott Carter: Conversations (world premiere) Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) Colin Currie (percussion) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Oliver Knussen (conductor) Charlotte Bray: Caught in Treetops Alexandra Wood (violin) Charlotte Bray: Replay (world premiere) Cheltenham Festival Academy Soloists Robert Saxton: A Yardstick to the Stars Ligeti: Etudes Nancarrow: Studies Jurgen Hocker (player-piano). Tom Service presents contemporary music from the 2011 Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Aldeburgh Festival | 20080628 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents the first of two programmes of music from this year's Aldeburgh Festival. Artistic Director Thomas Ades conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a concert that explores the music of composers Gyorgy Kurtag and Gyorgy Ligeti, as well as Gerald Barry's view of Beethoven and Ades's own instrumental fantasy Living Toys. Birmingham Contemporary Music Group: Natalia Zagorinskaia (soprano) Katalin Karolyi (mezzo-soprano) Stephen Richardson (bass) Thomas Ades (conductor) Ligeti: Sippal, Dobbal, Nadihegeduvel (with pipes, drums and fiddles) Gerald Barry: Beethoven Ades: Living Toys Gyorgy Kurtag: Messages of the Late Miss RV Troussova. Sara Mohr-Pietsch with music from the Aldeburgh Festival, including Kurtag and Ligeti. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Aldeburgh Festival | 20080705 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a programm featuring music from the 2008 Aldeburgh Festival. With a new work by Harrison Birtwistle, performed by the Arditti Quartet, as well as Thomas Ades and video artist Tal Rosner's concerto for piano and moving image In Seven Days. Including Rosner in conversation with Sara, discussing the collaborative compositional process. Cage: String Quartet in Four Parts Birtwistle: Tree of Strings (UK premiere) Ades: In Seven Days (Piano Concerto with Moving Image) Nicolas Hodges (piano) Tal Rosner (video artist) London Sinfonietta Thomas Ades (conductor). Music from the Aldeburgh Festival 2008, including works by Birtwistle and Ades/Rosner. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Aldeburgh Festival 2014 | 20140628 | Ivan Hewett presents highlights from Klangforum Wien's concert at the Britten Studio in Snape Maltings as part of the Aldeburgh Festival, with a special focus on composer Tristan Murail, alongside music by Giacinto Scelsi and Georg Friedrich Haas. Experience a thrilling history of spectral music presented by one of its leading exponents, Tristan Murail. When the reclusive Italian composer and mystic Giacinto Scelsi died in 1988, he left a body of work and a notational method so remarkable and unique that a quarter of a century later its impact on the musical world is being felt more strongly each year. His violin concerto Anahit is a stunning large-scale piece revolving around a single pitch but achieving a hugely expressive canvas through Scelsi's deep exploration of the anatomy of sound, allowing the ears to hear every tiny nuance. For its Scelsi Revisited project, one of Europe's leading contemporary music ensembles Klangforum Wien has enabled spectral composer Tristan Murail to gain unprecedented access to Scelsi's archives in Rome and write a new works based on his findings. And in Composers' Rooms, this week Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Roxanna Panufnik. Highlights from Klangforum Wien's event at Aldeburgh 2014, with music by Tristan Murail. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Aldo Clementi, Hans Abrahamsen | 20100717 | Ivan Hewett discusses the ancient and modern technique of the musical canon with composer Christopher Fox, and introduces pieces by two composers using canonic procedures today. Aldo Clementi: BLUES (Fantasie su Frammenti di Thelonius Monk) Mark Knoop (piano) Aldo Clementi: Texture Benjamin Marks (trombone) Aldo Clementi: Fantasia su frammenti di Michelangelo Galilei Anders Forisdal (guitar) at Spitalfields Festival. Hans Abrahamsen: Schnee London Sinfonietta conducted by Andre de Ridder at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Aldo Clementi: Lento Segue Aldo Clementi: B.A.C.H. Aldo Clementi: Dodici Variazioni Aldo Clementi: Dedica Anders Forisdal (guitar), Severine Ballon (cello), Richard Haynes (clarinet) of Elision at Spitalfields Festival. Ivan Hewett presents new music by Aldo Clementi and Hans Abrahamsen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Alexander Goehr | 20100821 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to British composer Alexander Goehr about his life and work. A founder member of the 'New Music Manchester' Group, Alexander Goehr is a unique voice in British music, and an influential teacher. Features music from the BBC Philharmonic's recent composer profile. Fanfare from Arden Must Die HK Gruber (conductor) Mozart Adagio in B minor (excerpt) Mitsuko Uchida (piano) PHILIPS CD 4126162 Adagio (Autoportr䀀t) Op 75 3 pieces from Arden must die' Op 21a (1967) Fugue on the notes of Psalm IV Op 38b (1976) Turmmusik Op 85 Nigel Robson (tenor) World Premiere - BBC Radio 3 Commission Sara Mohr-Pietsch profiles British composer Alexander Goehr. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
An Assembly | 20170610 | Tom McKinney presents a concert of new music from City, University of London with composer Jack Sheen directing his new ensemble An Assembly. All of the music is written by composers in their twenties - Laurie Tompkins, Maya Verlaak, Oliver Leith, Paul McGuire, Eleanor Cully and Louis D'Heudieres - showcasing the huge range of composition in the UK today. Plus 70 flutes and 70 saxophones wish Salvatore Sciarrino a happy 70th birthday, with a little bit of help from a countertenor, in his amazing Studi per l'intonazione del mare. You'll never have heard anything like it before! Full programme: Laurie Tompkins: Dear Dope (2014) Maya Verlaak: Dance III (2016/17) Oliver Leith: Veil, from Hand Coloured (2014) Paul McGuire: Panels (2014) Eleanor Cully: Deer Tracks (2016/17, world premiere) Louis d'Heudieres: Laughter Studies 6 (2017, world premiere) Jack Sheen (director) Salvatore Sciarrino: Studi per l'intonazione del mare Michel van Goethem (countertenor) Orchestra of flutes, saxophones and percussion Marco Angius (director). Tom McKinney presents a concert of new music by new ensemble An Assembly. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Anders Hillborg At 60 | 20150221 | Anders Hillborg at 60. Ivan Hewett talks to the leading Swedish composer and introduces recordings made at a sell out Composer Festival of his music held in Stockholm last November. Bridging the gap between pop and the classical world, Hillborg's music is an intoxicating encounter with sound, sometimes intimidating, sometimes sweet. The music tonight spans nearly a quarter of a century from Hillborg's first concerto of 1991 to his fantastical Beast Sampler. And in the middle comes Vaporised Tivoli, loosely inspired by a Ray Bradbury story of a nightmarish funfair that comes to town. Plus, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Errollyn Wallen for the latest edition of Composers' Rooms. Beast sampler (World premiere) The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm, Sakari Oramo (conductor) The Strand settings Agneta Eichenholz (soprano) Vaporised Tivolo members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Violin Concerto Carolin Widmann (violin) O dessa ogon Hannah Holgersson (soprano), Strings of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Sakari Oramo (conductor). Ivan Hewett interviews Swedish composer Anders Hillborg and introduces his music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Antarctica, Laura Bowler | 20190302 | Manchester Camerata explores climate change in a new work by Laura Bowler and presenter Tom McKinney features recordings of other new music inspired by the environment, including works by Brett Dean, Mason Bates and John Luther Adams. John Luther Adams: Ilimaq (extract) Glenn Kotche (percussion) with electronics by the composer Laura Bowler's new music theatre piece is an immersive commentary on the effects of climate change, inspired by a recent journey she made to the Antarctic. Laura Bowler: `Antarctica` (BBC Radio 3 and Manchester Camerata Commission) Laura Bowler (Voice) Sam Redway (Actor) Danielle Henry (Actor) Ryan Pace (Actor) Manchester Camerata conducted by Jessica Cottis Mason Bates: `Liquid Interface` San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas Brett Dean: `Fire Music` BBCSO and Sakari Oramo Manchester Camerata explores climate change in Laura Bowler's new work. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Anthony Payne At 75 | 20110806 | Anthony Payne at 75: Ivan Hewett talks to one of the UK's most distinguished composers about his life, influences and music. Including specially recorded performances of his two String Quartets. Adlestrop Jane Manning (Soprano) Jane's Minstrels String Quartet No. 1 Tippett String Quartet Time's Arrow BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Davis (conductor) String Quartet No. 2 Allegri String Quartet. Ivan Hewett talks to composer Anthony Payne about his distinguished career. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Antipodean Composers | 20130413 | Ivan Hewett presents a programme showcasing composers from New Zealand and Australia. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Apartment House At 20 | 20150815 | ~Hear And Now: Apartment House at 20 Robert Worby presents a birthday concert given last month at Caf退 Oto in East London by the award-winning group, hailed as, 'one of the most innovative and exciting chamber ensembles in Europe.' Robert talks to the cellist, Anton Lukoszevieze, Apartment House's founder and director, about the ensemble and its innovative programming. Tonight's concert is a typically eclectic mix: there's music from the 1960s by the Lithuanian-born New Yorker George Maciunas which explores the boundaries of music and performance art, a 20-minute work of proto-minialism by the Dane Henning Christiansen, and a seminal score from the 1950s avant-garde by John Cage. Jennifer Walshe: This is Why People OD on Pills Luiz Henrique Yudo: CHINESE WALL PAPER Version I George Maciunas: Solo for Balloons; Music for Everyman Luiz Henrique Yudo: CHINESE WALL PAPER Version II Laurence Crane: 20th Century Music Henning Christiansen: fluxorum organum Part II George Maciunas: Solo for Violin (Gordon Mackay - violin) John Cage: Concert for Piano and Orchestra - Aria (Philip Thomas - piano, Lore Lienberg, mezzo). Apartment House perform music by George Maciunas, John Cage and Henning Christensen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Arditti Quartet, Sounds New Festival 2012 | 20120602 | Ivan Hewett introduces a recording of the Arditti Quartet live in concert at the Sounds New festival of contemporary music in Canterbury. And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty - celebrating modern classics from the late 20th-century - pianist Joanna MacGregor nominates Harrison Birtwistle's 1972 orchestral score The Triumph of Time, with commentary from writer Paul Griffiths. Brian Ferneyhough: Exordium Phillip Neil Martin: An Outburst of Time (part of the RPS/BBC Radio 3 Encore project) Harrison Birtwistle: The Triumph of Time Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Elgar Howarth Paul Max Edlin: Frida Sketches (World premiere) The Encore project is a collaboration between the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC Radio 3 designed to give repeat performances and broadcasts of works by living British Composers which otherwise might be lost from view. A performance given by the Arditti Quartet at the 2012 Sounds New festival in Canterbury. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Arvo Part | 20150912 | To mark the 80th birthday of Arvo P䀀rt, Ivan Hewett talks to composer and conductor Antony Pitts about the fundamentals of P䀀rt's technique drawing on a range of P䀀rt recordings, including: Annum per annum [1980] Lorenzo Ghielmi (organ) The Deer's Cry [2007] Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier Collage on the theme B-A-C-H / III: Ricercare [1964] Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jean-Jacques Kantorow (conductor) Solfeggio [1963] Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, T倀nu Kaljuste (conductor) Passio [1982] (excerpt: Dicit eis Pilatus "Regem vestrum... ...Quod scripsi, scripsi") Tonus Peregrinus, Antony Pitts (conductor) Orient & Occident [2000] Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, T倀nu Kaljuste (conductor) The Lord's Prayer [1997] Nunc dimittis [2001] Wiltener S䀀ngerknaben, Johannes Stecher. Ivan Hewett and Antony Pitts reflect on the music of Arvo Part as the composer turns 80. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Arvo Part And Dobrinka Tabakova | 20150919 | Ivan Hewett features music by Arvo P䀀rt and Dobrinka Tabakova including the UK premiere of her Cello Concerto. Dobrinka Tabakova: Centuries of Meditations Arvo P䀀rt: Adam's Lament Dobrinka Tabakova: Concerto for Cello and Strings (UK premiere) Arvo P䀀rt: Stabat Mater Tallinn Chamber Orchestra with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Kristian J䀀rvi soloists: Kristina Blaumane (cello) and Ceri Wynne Jones (harp). Ivan Hewett features music by Arvo Part and Dobrinka Tabakova. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bangor New Music Festival 2010 | 20100515 | The Bangor New Music Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary this March. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces new works performed at a concert in this year's Festival by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and talks to two of the composers involved - Guto Puw (the Festival's Artistic Director) and Andrew Lewis. Andrew Lewis: Danses acousmatiques - Torquetum (pas de cinq) (extract) From the album 'Miroirs obscurs' (empreintes DIGITALes IMED 0789) Guto Pryderi Puw: Hologram (R3 commission: world premiere) Andrew Lewis: Number Nine Dream (world premiere) Adrian Williams: Cello Concerto (R3 commission: world premiere) conducted by Grant Llewellyn Continung the Welsh theme, Sara also joins composer and harpist Rhodri Davies for a tour of his installation 'Room Harp', part of the exhibition 'all art is, is rhythm' at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle's Great Northern Museum. John Butcher/Rhodri Davies: Scrogg (extract) From the album 'CARLIOL' (ftarri-220) Works by Guto Puw, Andrew Lewis, Adrian Williams, from 2010's Bangor New Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Baroque Spring | 20130323 | As part of Baroque Spring, Sara Mohr-Pietch introduces works by Kevin Volans, Alexander Goehr, Gerald Barry and Poul Ruders, and talks to the composers themselves about how they have taken inspiration from Baroque music. Kevin Volans: White Man Sleeps (excerpt) Kevin Volans & Robert Hill (harpsichords), Margriet Tindemans (viola da gamba), Robyn Schulkowski (percussion) Alexander Goehr: ... a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985)... London Sinfonietta Oliver Knussen (conductor) Gerald Barry: The Intelligence Park (excerpt) Almeida Ensemble Robert Houlihan (conductor) Poul Ruders: Concerto in Pieces BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Davis (conductor). For Baroque Spring, works inspired by the Baroque by Goehr, Volans, Ruders and Barry. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Basil Kirchin In Hull | 20170304 | Kerry Andrew presents a concert from Hull City Hall celebrating reclusive sound collage genius Basil Kirchin, who died in Hull in 2005. Goldfrapp's Will Gregory has curated a programme of music by Kirchin and musicians inspired by him, including Matthew Bourne, Will Gregory himself, Matthew Herbert and Jim O'Rourke. Performers include vocalist Brigitte Beraha, pianist Matthew Bourne, saxophonist Evan Parker, Hull University Chamber Choir, the Will Gregory Ensemble and the BBC Concert Orchestra with conductor Clark Rundell. From Hull's City Hall, a concert curated by Will Gregory to celebrate Basil Kirchin. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales: Henze, Holt And Hoddinott | 20090228 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at BBC Hoddinott Hall, featuring orchestral works inspired by a trio of poets - Shakespeare, Goethe and Gwyn Thomas. Jac van Steen (conductor) Henze: Symphony No 8 26:39 Holt: Troubled Light 22:12 Hoddinott: Lizard 25:28 Jac van Steen conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Henze, Holt and Hoddinott. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales: Resonances Of Dutilleux | 20160312 | Ivan Hewett presents works inspired by Henri Dutilleux recorded in a centenary concert given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Pascal Rophe at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff last month. The programme looks at the lasting legacy of Dutilleux's music through the composers that he inspired and influenced, from Eric Tanguy to Julian Anderson and Thierry Pecou and Kenneth Hesketh. In the final work, soprano Elizabeth Atherton joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a performance of Dutilleux's final work, Le temps l'horloge. Eric Tanguy: Affettuoso in memoriam Henri Dutilleux Julian Anderson: Shir Hashirim Thierry Pecou: Les liaisons magn退tiques Kenneth Hesketh: Graven Image Dutilleux: Le temps l'horloge Elizabeth Atherton (soprano) Pascal Roph退 (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in music inspired by Dutilleux. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Philharmonic: Red Brick Sessions | 20170506 | Ivan Hewett presents music by Anders Hillborg and Tansy Davies recorded at the BBC Philharmonic's Red Brick Sessions in Salford. Plus the world premiere of David Fennessy's Panopticon recorded at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh last November. Eleven Gates' for orchestra Clark Rundell (conductor) Residuum (after Dowland)' for 2 violins, cello and orchestra Anthony Hermus (conductor) Falling Angel' for ensemble ...lontano in sonno...' for voice and orchestra Hannah Holgersson (soprano) Spine' for chamber orchestra (includes cimbalom) Panopticon' for string sextet and cimbalom Hebrides Ensemble & Psappha. Ivan Hewett presents the BBC Philharmonic in music by Anders Hillborg and Tansy Davies. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Philharmonic-macmillan | 20090815 | Robert Worby presents the BBC Philharmonic conducted by James MacMillan in works by young composers selected by the Society for the Promotion of New Music, as well as one of MacMillan's own pieces. Oliver Waespi: Viaduct (13:54) James MacMillan (conductor) Elizabeth Winters: The Serious Side of Madness (12:00) MacMillan: A Deep but Dazzling Darkness for violin and orchestra (22:36) Chantal Juillet (violin) Louis Johnson: Swinside Study (11:16) Maxim Bendall: The Circumference of the Ocean (12:38) The BBC Philharmonic performs music by young composers and James MacMillan. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra | 20160116 | Presented by Tom Service Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the first UK performances of works by Rebecca Saunders, Johannes Schollhorn, Franck Bedrossian and Ann Cleare, including Rebecca Saunders 'Alba' with trumpeter Marco Blaauw. Recorded at Glasgow's City Halls in November 2014 Plus a new recording of Rebecca Saunders's Solitude for solo cello, performed by Severine Ballon Johannes Schollhorn: D䀀mmerung-Schmetterlinge (UK Premiere) Rebecca Saunders: Traces Franck Bedrossian: Itself (UK premiere) Ann Cleare: ph䀀sphors (...of ether) (UK premiere) Rebecca Saunders: Alba (for trumpet and orchestra)* (UK premiere) *Marco Blaauw (trumpet) Ilan Volkov (conductor) Rebecca Saunders: Solitude (for solo cello) S退verine Ballon (cello). BBC SSO performs Rebecca Saunders, Johannes Schollhorn, Franck Bedrossian and Ann Cleare. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra | 20160123 | Presented by Tom Service. Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert recorded at Glasgow's City Halls. Joan Magran退 Figuera's ...secreta desolaci n... references Wagner's Parsifal, while another German musical revolutionary, Helmut Lachenmann, uses silences and large orchestral forces in Tableau, a work described as "mesmerising, startling and occasionally forbidding". Jay Schwartz's Delta combines "physics with the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of sound" and Salvatore Sciarrino's flute concerto, with soloist Matteo Cesari, offers a fragile soundworld on the edge of silence. Plus, the latest of Hear and Now's series Modern Muses, features the composer Liza Lim and cellist Severine Ballon, and there's a chance to hear one of Liza Lim's most significant large scale works, The Compass, for solo flute, didgeridoo and orchestra. Joan Magrane Figuera: ...secreta desolacion... (UK premiere) Salvatore Sciarrino: Libro notturno delle voci* (UK premiere) Jay Swartz: Delta - Music for Orchestra IV Helmut Lachenmann: Tableau *Matteo Cesari (flute) Matthias Pintscher (conductor) Liza Lim: The Compass Carin Levine (flute), William Bartin (didgeridoo) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Christoph Poppen (conductor). Music by Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann, Joan Magrane Figuera and Jay Schwartz. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra | 20160227 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert recorded earlier this evening at Glasgow's City Halls by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Martyn Brabbins. Robert Worby previews next week's Festival of Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) which takes place across the whole of the UK, and in Modern Muses, New York-based composer Nico Muhly and British countertenor Iestyn Davies talk about not only their musical collaborations, including Muhly's Richard III-inspired Old Bones but also a close personal friendship, both of which they sustain despite being based thousands of miles apart. John McCabe: Joybox Sally Beamish: Cello Concerto No.2: The Song Gatherer Robert Cohen (cello) James MacMillan: Hodie Puer Nascitur Glasgow Chamber Choir Anthony Payne: Time's Arrow Martyn Brabbins (conductor). Music by John McCabe, Sally Beamish, Anthony Payne and James MacMillan. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Ircam Collaboration | 20080816 | Robert Worby presents music from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's recent week of collaboration with IRCAM, the Paris centre for composition and research in electro-acoustic music. Music taken from across the week will include both acoustic and electro-acoustic composition from Boulez, Xenakis, Harvey and Maresz. Ivan Hewett also reports on David Byrne's New York City sound-art installation, Playing the Building. Go to the Hear and Now Homepage to see a video of Ivan 'playing the building'. Music to include: Pierre Boulez: Dialogue de l'Ombre Double Alain Billard, clarinet Ircam computer music design, Andrew Gerzso Ircam sound realisation, Gilbert Nouno, J退r退mie Henrot Xenakis: Aroura Scottish Ensemble Guest Director, Laurent Quenelle Maresz: Metallics Laurent B䀀mont, trumpet Ircam computer music design, Xavier Chabot Harvey: Excerpts & 2 Interludes from Wagner Dream Claire Booth, soprano BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Ilan Volkov Ircam computer music design: Gilvert Nouno; sound engineer: J退r退mie Henrot Robert Worby with music from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's IRCAM collaborations. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Sso In Music, By Michel Van Der Aa | 20090418 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing recent works by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa at a concert given in February 2009 at City Halls, Glasgow. Elizabeth Layton (violin) Franck Ollu (conductor) Michel van der Aa: Here (enclosed) for chamber orchestra and soundtrack (2003); Imprint for baroque orchestra (2005); Memo for solo violin and portable cassette recorder (2003); Second Self for orchestra and soundtrack (2004). The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform works by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Sso, Boulez, Zuraj, Trojahn, Nikodijevic | 20150328 | Continuing Radio 3's celebration of the 90th birthday of the doyen of French composers, Pierre Boulez. Matthias Pintscher, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Artist-in-Association, conducts the orchestra in Boulez's classic ...explosante-fixe..., with flute players Roy Amotz, Michael Cox and Yvonne Paterson. Before the Boulez, Pintscher conducts two UK premieres, Herbstmusik/Sinfonischer Satz by Manfred Trojahn and the new horn concerto Hawk-eye by Vito Zuraj with soloist Saar Berger. Their concert begins with the Scottish premiere of Cvetic, Kucica.../La Lugubre Gondola (Funeral Music after Franz Liszt) by Marko Nikodijevic. And in this week's episode of Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the workspace of Spanish composer Hector Parra. Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC SSO in music by Pierre Boulez and two UK premieres. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Sso, Skempton, Cardew, Wolff, Feldman | 20100522 | Robert Worby presents a concert from Glasgow featuring four composers who rose to prominence in the 1960s: Feldman and Wolff in the 'New York School', while in England, Cardew and Skempton founded the Scratch Orchestra. Howard Skempton: Lento Cornelius Cardew: Bun no. 1 Christian Wolff: Spring Morton Feldman: Piano and Orchestra John Tilbury (piano) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Also in this programme, a review of recent CD releases of New Music. Album: Sounding Music Artists: AMM CD: Matchless Recordings MRCD77 Album: Old School/John Cage Artists: Zeitkratzer CD: zeitkratzer records zkr 0009 Album: Music for Piano and Strings by Morton Feldman Artists: The Smith Quartet with John Tilbury DVD: Matchless Recordings MRDVD-01 The BBC SSO and John Tilbury (piano) in music by Skempton, Cardew, Wolff and Feldman. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bbc Symphony Orchestra: Australia | 20160806 | Presented by Tom McKinney. Brett Dean conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Australian composers, from a concert recorded in April at Maida Vale studios. Plus the latest in Hear and Now's series of Modern Muses, with the Australian-born composer Kate Moore and cellist Ashley Bathgate, and Betsy Jolas's 90th birthday is celebrated with the premiere of her latest work commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic. Meale: Clouds now and then Thomas Meadowcroft: Peacemaker Tattoo Lisa Illean: Land's End (European premiere) Georges Lentz: 'Caeli enarrant ...' III Thomas Meadowcroft (Revox) Anthony Pateras (Revox) Brett Dean (conductor) Betsy Jolas: A Little Summer Suite (World premiere) Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle (conductor) by kind permission of the Berlin Philharmonic Brett Dean: Engelsflügel (European premiere) Anthony Pateras: Immediata* (European premiere) *Thomas Gould (violin) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Brett Dean (conductor). With the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Australian music, and Betsy Jolas at 90. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bcmg From Aldeburgh | 20170624 | Tom McKinney introduces an edition of the programme recorded yesterday at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival and featuring a concert of new music given by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Their programme, directed by Oliver Knussen, included premieres by Harrison Birtwistle and by Knussen himself alongside music with a Japanese flavour, songs by Jo Kondo and Stravinsky and music by Toru Takemitsu. The programme also features music by Hanna Tuulikki and Lucy Duncombe, "Tidesongs", music for multi-layered voice and vocal processing, inspired by the tidal languages of the East Coast from Shetland to Suffolk and by the poetry of Alec Finlay, which has been enjoying performances in Hull as part of "Somewhere Becoming Sea" and at "FLOERS" in Dunbar. BCMG Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute) Claire Booth (soprano) Robert Murray (tenor) Conducted by Oliver Knussen Harrison Birtwistle: Chorale from a Toyshop 1 Stravinsky: Two Poems of Balmont; Three Japanese Lyrics Jo Kondo: Three Songs Tennyson Sung Harrison Birtwistle: Chorale from a Toyshop 2; Dear Dusty Moth Jo Kondo: Standing Harrison Birtwistle: Komachi Oliver Knussen: O Hototogisu - fragment of a Japonisme (world premiere) Takemitsu: Tree Line Birtwistle: Chorales from a Toyshop 1, 2, 3 (2016-7) (world premiere of No.3) Hanna Tuulikki/Lucy Duncombe: Tidesongs Performed by Lucy Duncombe and Hanna Tuulikki. Tom McKinney introduces music from BCMG recorded at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bcmg, Judith Weir, Howard Skempton | 20160723 | Tom McKinney presents a concert of contemporary British music given at CBSO Centre, Birmingham, last month. Judith Weir: Blue Green Luke Bedford: In Black Bright Ink (world premiere) Richard Baker: Hwyl fawr ffrindiau (world premiere) Melinda Maxwell: Solo improvisation Howard Skempton: Field Notes John Woolrich: Swan Song (world premiere) Zoe Martlew: Broad St Burlesque (world premiere) BCMG. The BCMG plays Judith Weir, Luke Bedford, Richard Baker, Howard Skempton and John Woolrich Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bcmg, Uk Firsts | 20150404 | Franck Ollu conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a concert packed with world and UK premieres. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, who also visits Chris Watson for the latest episode of Composers' Rooms. Ivo Nilsson: Rapidit | |
Beat Furrer, Gf Haas | 20170211 | Tom Service presents the recent UK premieres of two works by the Austrian composer and conductor Beat Furrer: his 'Intorno al Bianco' recorded at last Autumn's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and his large-scale sound-theatre piece FAMA for the London Sinfonietta. Plus 'aus freier lust . . . verbunden' by Furrer's fellow Austrian, Georg Friedrich Haas, which was also performed at last Autumn's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Klangforum Wien Isabelle Menke (voice) Beat Furrer (conductor) aus freier Lust...verbunden .. Angelos Kritikos Trombone Unit Hannover. Tom Service presents recent UK premieres of music by Austrian composer Beat Furrer. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Beat Furrer, Naomi Pinnock, Dai Fujikura | 20110312 | Swiss-born Beat Furrer is established as one of the leading lights of Austrian new music, and Naomi Pinnock and Dai Fujikura are from the younger generation of British composers. Tom Service talks to them all about their work, including one world premiere. Beat Furrer: Xenos London Sinfonietta Beat Furrer (conductor) Beat Furrer: Presto Michael Cox (flute) John Constable (piano) Naomi Pinnock: Words (world premiere) Omar Ebrahim (baritone) Dai Fujikura: Recorder Concerto Jeremias Schwarzer (recorder) Ensemble Resonanz Peter Rundel (conductor) Beat Furrer: enigma BBC Singers Nicholas Kok (conductor) Beat Furrer: Nuun Rolf Hind & Zubin Kanga (pianos) Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble Beat Furrer (conductor). Tom Service presents music by Beat Furrer, Naomi Pinnock and Dai Fujikura. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Beatriz Ferreyra | 20170617 | An electroacoustic edition featuring music by Argentinian composer Beatriz Ferreyra, who celebrates her 80th birthday this month. Three of her works were presented at the Electric Spring Festival at the University of Huddersfield earlier this year, and she discusses these pieces and her wider career in conversation with presenter Robert Worby. In between works by Ferreyra, studio guest Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay, director of Electric Spring, selects some recent releases from the world of electroacoustic music by artists who have appeared at the festival over the years including Dominic Thibault, Francis Dhomont, @c, Autistici and Sam Pluta. Beatriz Ferreyra: Rio De Los Pကjaros (1998-99) Beatriz Ferreyra: Echos (1978) Beatriz Ferreyra: Senderos de luz y sombras (UK Premiere). Featuring the music of Argentinian electroacoustic composer Beatriz Ferreyra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bedroom Community | 20151017 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents highlights of a showcase concert of music for organ from the Iceland-based Bedroom Community collective performed by James McVinnnie. Including works by composer and Bedroom Community founder Valgeir Sigur | |
Belfast Sonorities 2013 | 20130511 | Ivan Hewett introduces four recent works by Irish composers and specially recorded at Belfast's Sonorities 2013 festival of contemporary music, Beyond Soundscape. Donal Sarsfield's work for solo violin and strings explores the natural space between water and wood: an amplified violin weaves its way through taped sounds of an old chair squeeking and the night rain falling. Ryan Molloy recalls the old ways of Irish music and culture as if in a dream. Donnacha Dennehy's concerto for amplified violin and orchestra Elastic Harmonic places the violin like a "floating body over the orchestra, " and David Fennessy's inspiration was an image he had of a microscopic orchestra all seated in the swirl of a fingerprint: at the point of contact between a bowed open string and a violinist's finger an entire orchestral sound was seeps out from beneath it. Recorded at an Ulster Orchestra BBC Radio 3 Invitation Concert for Hear and Now Donal Sarsfield: Between Wood and Water for string orchestra and tape with Darragh Morgan (violin), Ulster Orchestra, David Brophy (conductor) Ryan Molloy: Third Epistle to Timothy Donnacha Dennehy: Elastic Harmonic with Darragh Morgan (amplified violin), Ulster Orchestra, David Brophy (conductor) David Fennessy: This is how it feels (Another Bolero) Ulster Orchestra, David Brophy (conductor). Ivan Hewett introduces four recent Irish works performed at Belfast's Sonorities 2013. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bergen Festival 2007 | 20071103 | A concert of new music by seven composers from four countries performed by the Uroboros Ensemble. Presented by Sara Mohr Pietsch in conversation with composer, conductor and Uroboros founder Gwyn Pritchard. James Clarke: Echolalia (World premi耀re) Helmut Zapf: Fragmente for Clarinet and String trio Urus Rojko: Atemaj Andrea Cavallari: Ordine e disordine Gerhard Staebler: INTERNETx3/SCRAP Gwyn Pritchard: Capriccio Inquieto Philip Cashian: Caprichos Gwyn Pritchard (director). A concert of new music by seven composers, performed by the Uroboros Ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Berio, Sciarrino | 20130817 | Ivan Hewett is joined by studio guest Paul Griffiths for a double bill of Italian music theatre: Salvatore Sciarrino's opera The Killing Flower, based on the true story of madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo's murder of his wife and her lover; and marking ten years since the death of the celebrated avant-gardist Luciano Berio, a repeat broadcast of his dramatic work Passaggio in which a single character, She, is subjected to the accusations and commentaries of two choruses in a series of tragic situations. Luciano Berio: Passaggio Luisa Castellani (soprano) Students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama BBC Symphony Orchestra Luciano Berio (conductor) Recorded at the Barbican Centre in 1990 as part of the BBC's Berio at the Barbican From approx. 11pm Salvatore Sciarrino: The Killing Flower (Luci mei traditrici) Duchess: Amanda Forbes Duke: George Humphreys Guest: William Towers Servant: Michael Bennett Music Theatre Wales Ensemble Michael Rafferty (conductor) Recorded last month at the Buxton Opera House as part of the Buxton Festival. Ivan Hewett introduces music by Luciano Berio and Salvatore Sciarrino. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Berlin New Music Scene | 20091107 | 1989: Twentieth Anniversary As part of BBC Radio 3's season of programmes marking the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ivan Hewett reports on the city's vibrant new music scene today. He speaks to musicians from the old East, composer Helmut Oehring and ensemble director Thomas Bruns; and from the old West side, composers Enno Poppe and Reinhold Friedl, and festival director Matthias Osterwold. British composer Rebecca Saunders, who has settled in the city, proves that Berlin is still a magnet for foreign musicians. And from the new Noise scene, Sudden Infant explains why, in Berlin, noise is beautiful. Interviews with: Matthias Osterwold (artistic director, Maerzmusik) Thomas Bruns (artistic director, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin) Helmut Oehring (composer) Rebecca Saunders (composer) Enno Poppe (composer) Reinhold Friedl (composer and director of Zeitkratzer) Music: Zeitkratzer/Nicolai: 5 Min (8:09) Zeitkratzer and Carsten Nicolai CD: Electronics (3-CD set, Zeitkratzer Records ZKR0004 Track 2) Rebecca Saunders: Blaauw (9.40) Marco Blaauw (double-bell trumpet) CD: (Wergo WER6694 2 Track 1) Enno Poppe: Interzone (extract) (14:50) Omar Ebrahim (voice) Neue Vocalsolisten Ensemble Mosaik Jonathan Stockhammer (conductor) CD: (Kairos 0012552KAI Track 12) Hildur Gudnadottir: Erupting Light (1:00) Hildur Gudnadottir (cello & electronics) CD: Without Sinking (Touch TO:70 Track 3) Sudden Infant: Zipper Ripper (0:45) CD: Psychotic Einzelkind (Blossoming Noise NB036CD Track 11) Sudden Infant: Ecstatic Ectoplasmic Eruption (4:19) CD: Invocation of the Aural Slave Gods (Blossoming Noise BN006CD Track 5) Helmut Oehring: Dokumentaroper (extract) (12:00) Salome Kammer (voice) Ulrike Zech (mezzo) Christina Schonfeld (deaf-mute actress) Gerlinde Demel (deaf-mute actress) Gabriela Arndt (deaf-mute actress) Torsten Ottersberg (live electronics) Conducted by Roland Kluttig CD: (Wergo WER 6534-2) Ivan Hewett reports on Berlin's new music scene, twenty years after the fall of the Wall. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Berlioz, The Ultimate Romantic | 20190216 | As part of Radio 3's Berlioz season, Tom Service introduces a complete broadcast of David Sawer's radiophonic work Swansong, commissioned by the BBC and first broadcast in 1989. Sawer's work is an evocation of a fantastical musical city, Euphonia, imagined by Hector Berlioz in one of the tales from his book Evenings With The Orchestra. Sawer has taken Berlioz's descriptions of the strange sounds of the city and used the resources of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, various solo instruments, sound effects and a children's choir to evoke Euphonia in the form of a radiophonic symphonic poem. Also tonight, music by another British composer of today deeply inspired by Berlioz, Benedict Mason, and his site-specific work for the Baarsporthalle at Donaueschingen and commissioned for the festival by Southwest German Radio. From the same concert we also hear an orchestral work by a long-overlooked Swiss composer, Hermann Meier, and our Sound of the Week comes from the Dutch composer Carlijn Metselaar who takes us into the undergrowth for the snapping of twigs and branches. David Sawer: Swansong (1989) Nick Dear (text) Robert Lang (speaker) Eric Hill (guitar) Imogen Barford (harp) Sophia Preston (double bass) Rolf Hind (piano) Jeremy Sams (accordion) Simon Limbrick (percussion) Finchley Children's Music Group Rupert Bawden, Ronald Corp (conductors) Hermann Meier: Stück für gro߀es Orchester und Klavier vierh䀀ndig (1965) Benedict Mason: Ricochet (2018) SWR Symphonieorchester Peter Rundel (conductor) Tom Service introduces a broadcast of David Sawer's 1989 work for radio, Swansong. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bernard Rands At 80 | 20141018 | Ivan Hewett presents an 80th birthday tribute to one of today's leading composers, Bernard Rands. Once described as, 'a composer with a poet's sensibility and a painterly love of colour and line', Rands has for many years been resident in the USA. However, he was born in the UK in Sheffield so it is especially appropriate that tonight's recordings were made at the Royal Northern College of Music's celebration of his music held in June. Rands has held teaching positions at many leading universities and music schools across the US and is himself a onetime pupil of Dallapiccola, Berio and Boulez. His brand of post-Impressionist elegance combined with rhythmic vigour has resulted in residencies with many of the United States' top orchestras. Rands says that he writes his music 'to be as honest and as deeply personal as I can', and this is evident in his 'Chains like the sea'. The work is inspired by a poem by Dylan Thomas, as Rands uses the sounds of bells to map out life, from birth to death. And in Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the urban workspace which the composer Emily Hall shares with a community of other musicians and visual artists. Bernard Rands: Danza petrificada BBC Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor) Bernard Rands: Cello Concerto Johannes Moser (cello) Composers' Rooms: Emily Hall and her urban workspace Hans Werne Henze: Heliogabalus Imperator BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen (conductor) Bernard Rands: Chains like the sea BBC Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor). Ivan Hewett marks the 80th birthday of leading contemporary composer Bernard Rands. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group | 20091031 | Tom Service presents music from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's opening concert of the 2009-10 by Simon Holt, Richard Causton, Vic Hoyland, and Bruno Maderna, including three premieres. Nicholas Daniel (oboe, oboe d'amore, cor anglais) Diego Masson (conductor) Simon Holt: Capriccio Spettrale (revised version: premiere) (12:08) Richard Causton: Chamber Symphony (world premiere) (22:27) Bruno Maderna: Oboe Concerto No 1 (19:09) Vic Hoyland: Hey Presto!... moon - flower - bat (world premiere) (17:11) The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group play Simon Holt, Richard Causton and Vic Hoyland. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group | 20110319 | Robert Worby presents a concert from Birmingham, and talks to featured composer Jo Kondo. Jo Kondo: Standing Stefan Wolpe: Piece in Two Parts for Six Players Oliver Knussen: Requiem - Songs for Sue Jo Kondo: Three Songs Tennyson Sung (world premiere) Morton Feldman: The Viola in My Life II Harrison Birtwistle: Silbury Air Claire Booth (soprano) Christopher Yates (viola) BCMG, conductor Oliver Knussen This concert was recorded last weekend in Brimingham, home of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group- bcmg. It includes two works by leading Japanese composer Jo Kondo, who is celebrated for his delicately minimal soundworld. Oliver Knussen's conducting and composing career has often taken him to the US and to Japan, fuelling an interest in the composers living and working in those countries. He is a long-standing champion of the music of Jo Kondo, whose new Sound Investment commission, Three Songs Tennyson Sung, for soprano and 7 instruments is unveiled in this concert. Kondo's music has been compared to the pointillist painting technique of Georges Seurat. He pays great attention to the colour and sonority of individual notes and instruments. Knussen's Requiem - Songs for Sue, is a memorial piece for his wife Sue Knussen, which sets poetry by Rilke, Emily Dickinson, Machado and WH Auden. The American Morton Feldman's quiet, slowly unfolding music has a kinship with Jo Kondo. Harrison Birtwistle's classic piece Silbury Air was inspired by the mysterious earthwork called Silbury Hill. The BCMG perform Jo Kondo, Morton Feldman, Stefan Wolpe and Oliver Knussen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group At 30 | 20170923 | Tom Service presents a special concert given by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group recorded earlier this month to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The BCMG has grown into one of the foremost contemporary music ensembles today and their anniversary concert features three ground-breaking works that have been written since their founding in 1987 - Ond?ej Adကmek's Sinuous Voices, Rebecca Saunders' Into the Blue, and Helmut Lachenmann's Zwei Gefühle. Plus the third part of Hear and Now's archive feature on the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival at 40, in which Andrew Kurowski talks to Robert Worby about the Festival's changing perspectives, including recordings of Claudia Molitor's Paper Cut by Apartment House from the 2008 Festival and Rebecca Saunders' String Quartet by the Arditti Quartet at the 2012 Festival. The Sound of the Week comes from electronic composer/DJ Lee Gamble, who has been inspired by aural hallucinations.. BCMG @ 30 Ond?ej Adကmek: Sinuous Voices (2004/09) Rebecca Saunders: Into the Blue (1996) Emilio Pom | |
Birtwistle: The Corridor And The Cure | 20150718 | Classical myth's archetypes, elemental symbolism and pitiless laying bare of the human condition have long spurred Harrison Birwistle to produce some of his greatest music, at once multi-layered and direct, violent and tender. In Birtwistle's two recent chamber operas, the tragic moment when Orpheus turns to look at Eurydice is the subject of The Corridor (2009), while in The Cure (2015) Jason implores his sorceress lover Medea to help his ailing father, Aeson. Behind the production are some of Birtwistle's most trusted collaborators: librettist David Harsent, designer Alison Chitty, soprano Elizabeth Atherton and tenor Mark Padmore. Recorded at the Linbury StudioTheatre, Covent Garden and presented by Tom Service in conversation with Harrison Birtwistle. Harrison Birtwistle: The Corridor; The Cure Eurydice/Medea..... Elizabeth Atherton (soprano) Orpheus/Jason/Aeson...... Mark Padmore (tenor) London Sinfonietta Geoffrey Paterson (conductor) (Co-commissioned and co-produced by the Aldeburgh Festival and The Royal Opera, with additional support from the London Sinfonietta) Photo (c) Clive Barda. Harrison Birtwistle's The Corridor and The Cure, with Elizabeth Atherton and Mark Padmore. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bit20 Percussion And Nordic Voices | 20130420 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces some highlights of a recent concert given as part of the London Ear Festival and featuring two of Norway's leading new music ensembles. BIT20 Percussion (Bergen) and Nordic Voices (Oslo) take us on an hour long journey from Nordic sunrise and the sounds of nature to a performance piece whose course is determined by the roll of a dice. And before that Sara is joined by CD Review's Andrew McGregor for a round-up of some recent new music releases. Lasse Thoresen: Solbon (sunrise) Craig Farr: Music for an(y) occasion BIT20 and Nordic Voices Rolf Wallin: Twine BIT 20 Peter Ablinger: Studien nach der Natur Nordic Voices. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces music from Norway with BIT20 Percussion and Nordic Voices. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Borealis Festival | 20100220 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an eclectic programme from Norway's Borealis Fesitval, recorded at Kings Place and talks to festival director, Alwynne Pritchard Gerhard Stäbler: Von Branntwein und Finsternissen Gerhard Stäbler: Internet 1.9 Mark Knoop (piano) Baltazar & Habbestad: Unruhischer Räume Bjørnar Habbestad (elecroacoustic Flute) Pascal Baltazar (computer) Jennifer Walshe: This is why people O.D. on pills Rolf Borch (clarinet) Watch Tor Kristian Liseth's accompanying film (link below) Kunsu Shim: 33 things MoHa! Anders Hana (guitar/keyboard): Morten J. Olsen (drums/laptop). Sara Mohr-Pietsch with music from Norway's Borealis Fesitval, from Kings Place, London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Borealis Festival 2016 | 20160910 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music from the Norwegian experimental music festival Borealis. For five days each March, the composers, sound artists, improvisers and musicians of Borealis take over Bergen's art galleries, concert halls and warehouse spaces and 'rearrange the furniture of the musical world'. Pushing the settees around in tonight's programme are Norwegian Sigurd Fischer Olsen and Argentinian Santiago D퀀ez-Fischer. They introduce their world premieres in conversation with Sara Mohr-Pietsch, who also talks to composer and artist Jennifer Walshe about her manifesto for a new school of composition, 'The New Discipline'. Sigurd Fischer Olsen: Sserenades Santiago D퀀ez-Fischer: yelos desgarrar la tela del presagio Sofia Jernberg (vocal) BIT20 Ensemble Peter S. Szilvay (conductor). Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Borealis Festival 2018 | 20180721 | Kate Molleson reports from the 2018 Borealis festival for experimental music in Bergen, Norway, with performances from BIT20 String Quartet, Valen Trio and Duo Hellqvist/Amaral. Featured composer Peter Ablinger shares his Sound of the Week - a recording of many people talking in a cafe - and we hear from Laurence Crane and filmmaker Beatrice Gibson about collaborating on their Borealis commission, based on a film script by Gertrude Stein. Jan Martin Smørdal: Cell piece - reverse alarm variations (2018) Catherine Lamb: Prisma Interius VII Raven Chacon: The Journey of the Horizontal People (2016 Kristine Tjøgersen - Mist退rios do Corpo (2017) Knut Vaage: Svev Valen Trio. Kate Molleson reports from the Borealis festival for experimental music in Bergen, Norway. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Boulez, Pli Selon Pli | 20131102 | Pierre Boulez's Pli selon pli a classic of French modernism recorded in a concert given last month at City Halls, Glasgow by the soprano Marisol Montalvo and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Pintscher Ivan Hewett talk to Matthias Pintscher about a work which encompassed more than 30 years of Boulez's composing life. Although based on a text by Stephan Mallarm退, as Matthias Pintscher says: "Mallarm退's words in Pli selon pli don't really tell stories. Instead they offer abstract images that allow our imaginations to create our own experiences and associations.... Boulez takes us by the hand and leads us into this astonishingly beautiful garden and we are free to walk around it in any direction we choose." Also in the programme, Une page d'退ph退m退ride, pour piano, one of Boulez's latest compositions is played by Hideki Nagano (piano) Presented by Ivan Hewett Boulez: Pli selon pli (Portrait de Mallarm退) for soprano and orchestra Marisol Montsalvo (soprano) Matthias Pintscher conductor (and Artist-in-Association). BBC SSO under Matthias Pintscher in Boulez's Pli selon pli for soprano and orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Brett Dean And Philip Glass | 20120407 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces recordings from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's recent Total Immersion event focusing on the work of Australian composer Brett Dean, including Carlo, a piece inspired by the life and work of 16th-century madrigal composer Gesualdo, and Fire Music, a response to the Black Saturday bushfires that struck the state of Victoria in 2009. Plus in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, American composer Nico Muhly nominates Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts, with commentary from Gillian Moore. Brett Dean: Carlo (New version, UK Premiere) BBC Singers; BBC Symphony Orchestra David Robertson (conductor) Philip Glass: Music in Twelve Parts (Excerpt) The Philip Glass Ensemble; Michael Riesman (director) Brett Dean: Fire Music (BBC co-commission, UK Premiere) David Robertson (conductor). Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces music by Brett Dean and Philip Glass. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Brett Dean: Bliss | 20110416 | Tom Service presents the broadcast premiere of Brett Dean's three act opera Bliss, based on the novel by Peter Carey. Peter Coleman-Wright stars as Harry Joy the advertising executive with a dysfunctional family, who sees his life for what it really is following a heart attack. Between the acts Tom talks to the composer, to the opera's librettist Amanda Holden and to the critic Anna Picard. Plus, a recording of Dean's 2006 orchestral work Komarov's Fall, commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and inspired by the story of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov's ill-fated mission at the height of the space race in 1967. Brett Dean and Amanda Holden: Bliss Harry Joy - Peter Coleman-Wright Betty Joy - Merlyn Quaife Honey B - Lorina Gore Alex Duval - Barry Ryan David .....David Corcoran Lucy - Taryn Fiebig Johnny Davis - Kanen Breen Reverend Des/Police Officer/Nurse - Shane Lowrencev Aldo/Nigel Clunes - Henry Choo Mrs Dalton - Milijana Nikolic Nurses - Sharon Olde, Jane Parkin Police Officer/Betty's Doctor - Stephen Smith Neighbour/Asylum Doctor - Malcolm Ede Managing Directors - Malcolm Ede, Christopher Hillier, David Lewis, Sam Roberts-Smith, Sam Sakker Opera Australia BBC Symphony Orchestra Elgar Howarth - conductor Recorded at the Edinburgh International Festival in September 2010. 11.50pm Brett Dean: Komarov's Fall BBC National Orchestra of Wales Andre de Ridder - conductor. Brett Dean's opera Bliss, performed at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Brian Ferneyhough, Total Immersion | 20110226 | A concert given earlier today at the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day devoted to the music of Brian Ferneyhough. Presenter Ivan Hewett is joined by Tom Service, who reports on the day's events. Ferneyhough: Second String Quartet Quatuor Diotima Ferneyhough: Pl怀tzlichkeit (UK premiere) BBC SO, BBC Singers, Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Ferneyhough: Carceri d'Invenzione III Ferneyhough: Missa Brevis BBC Singers, James Morgan (conductor) Ferneyhough: La Terre est un Homme This concert spans the broad gamut of Ferneyhough's fertile invention, from the Missa Brevis for 12 solo singers of 1969 to the UK premiere of Pl怀tzlichkeit , a 20-minute masterpiece for large orchestra. The programme also includes a rare chance to hear the third part of his Carceri d'Invenzione cycle, a seminal work of the 1980s inspired by Piranesi's etchings of imagined dungeons and infernal places of imprisonment. Discover the multiform artistic influences and ideas behind the work of a composer who represents the antithesis of the predictable, the enemy of the routine. The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins performs music by Brian Ferneyhough. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British Chamber And Orchestral Music | 20140301 | Clark Rundell takes Robert Worby through a programme of specially recorded colourful orchestral and chamber music from a range of British composers, played by the BBC Philharmonic and Psappha. Plus, from a recent concert featuring 'New Experimentalists', work from Japanese-born artist Rie Nakajima who explains how her installations blur the boundaries between sculpture and sound. David Horne: Daedelus in Flight Clark Rundell (conductor) Joe Duddell: Nightswimming Rie Nakajima: new work Gordon Crosse: L'Enfant Sauvage Dov Goldberg (clarinet) Tim Williams (cimbalom) Philip Grange: Focus and Fade Clark Rundell (conductor). Robert Worby with music by David Horne, Joe Duddell, Gordon Crosse and Philip Grange. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British Composer Awards 2010 | 20101127 | Tom Service is joined by composer Christopher Fox to discuss the music and composers nominated for this year's British Composer Awards. Playlist: Howard Skempton - Only The Sound Remains (extract) Christopher Yates (viola) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Rolf Hind - A Single hair, a jasmine petal, seven mattresses, a pe | |
British Composer Awards 2011, Howard Skempton's Lento | 20111126 | Tom Service sifts through the music and composers nominated for this year's British Composer Awards, which takes place in London this Wednesday. Plus, in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now 50, artist Tom Phillips and Gillian Moore celebrate Lento, by the English experimentalist Howard Skempton. Thomas Simaku: Soliloquy for bass clarinet (excerpt) Sarah Watts (bass clarinet) Martin Suckling: What shall I give ? Mr McFall's Chamber, with Nicholas Mulroy (tenor) Kerry Andrew: Fall Joyful Company of Singers, Peter Broadbent (conductor) Kerry Andrew: Rhymes and Charms for Flyaway Things John Powell Singers, John Powell (conductor) with Christopher Cromar (piano) Dai Fujikura: away we play Juice Julian Joseph: Shadowball Cleveland Watkiss (vocals), The Julian Joseph Quintet, Students from Jubilee Primary School, Hackney and Kingsmead Community School, Hackney Graham Fitkin: PK BBC Concert Orchestra, Keith Lockhart (conductor) Emily Hall: The Nightingale and the Rose Streetwise Opera ~Hear And Now 50: Howard Skempton: Lento BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Huw Watkins: Violin Concerto Alina Ibragimova (violin), BBC Symhony Orchestra, Edward Gardner (conductor). A preview of the 2011 British Composer Awards. Hear and Now 50: Howard Skempton's Lento. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British Composer Awards 2012 | 20121201 | Ivan Hewett and guests pick favourites from the 2012 British Composer Awards shortlist. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British Composer Awards 2016 | 20161210 | Highlights from the 2016 British Composer Awards held at BFI Southbank in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British Composers | 20100703 | Introduced by Tom Service. Andr退 de Ridder conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert of premieres by four British-based composers, recorded in March at the Maida Vale studios. Plus the latest in our series of diary pieces from composers Mira Calix and Larry Goves on the progress of their year long compositional project, "Exchange and Return". Ian Vine: Writing on Water (Jennifer George [flute] / Ian Vine [piano, guitars, and electronics]) Lloyd Moore: Diabolus in Musica (world premiere) Michael Langemann: Five Movements for Orchestra (world premiere) Ian Vine: violet (world premiere) Ian Vine: alizarin sun (London premiere) Gavin Higgins: Dancing at the Edge of Hell (world premiere) Ligeti: Ramifications (London Sinfonietta / Andr退 de Ridder [conductor]) BBC SO/Andre de Ridder perform Lloyd Moore, Michael Langemann, Ian Vine and Gavin Higgins. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
British String Quartets At The Cheltenham Festival | 20120714 | Robert Worby presents British string quartets recorded at the Cheltenham Festival. Hugh Wood: String Quartet No. 1 Giles Swayne: String Quartet No. 3 Castalian String Quartet And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard champions the music of maverick German composer Helmut Lachenmann and his 1980s work for ensemble Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung); conductor Richard Bernas explains how the use of unconventional playing techniques created a rich and highly crafted soundworld the composer has described as musique concr耀te instrumentale. Helmut Lachenmann: Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung) Ensemble Modern Franck Ollu (conductor) Recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival last month. String Quartets by Giles Swayne, Hugh Wood, and Michael Nyman, plus Lachenmann's Mouvement Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Bryn Harrison | 20150822 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to the composer Bryn Harrison about how he plays with time in his music, and she introduces a recording of his mesmerising new work for violin and piano, 'Receiving the Approaching Memory'. She also talks to the violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and the pianist Mark Knoop who both premiered the work and perform it on this recording made at the BBC Maida Vale studios earlier this year specially for Hear and Now. Bryn Harrison: Repetitions in Extended Time (opening extract) Plus Minus Interview with Bryn Harrison, Aisha Orazbayeva and Mark Knoop Bryn Harrison: Approaching the Receiving Memory Aisha Orazbayeva (violin) Mark Knoop (piano) Elizabeth Arno (producer). Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces Bryn Harrison's new work Receiving the Approaching Memory. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Camberwell Composers' Collective | 20130302 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a concert of works by members of the Camberwell Composers' Collective, a group which began life as a club in a South London basement and whose work is now being showcased by some of the UK's leading orchestras. She's joined in the studio by two of the Collective's composers, Emily Hall and Mark Bowden. Chris Mayo: The Llano Curve Mark Bowden: Sudden Light Anna Meredith: Barchan (Donal Bannister, trombone) Emily Hall: Love Songs (Mara Carlyle, vocal) Charlie Piper: Kick up the Fire BBC National Orchestra of Wales Andrew Gourlay (conductor). The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs music by the Camberwell Composers' Collective Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Carl Stone And People Like Us | 20190119 | Robert Worby presents music by Carl Stone and People Like Us, two contrasting composers of electronic music, recorded at Caf退 Oto in London last year. The programme includes in-depth interviews with the composers about their different approaches to composing, as well as the full sets performed in the concert. Carl Stone is a senior figure in American electronic music, and a pioneer in live computer music. He samples short clips from existing musics, and uses this material to create a rich and constantly changing textural music. People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett) also samples other music, but her approach is collage-based and more like a dream narrative exploring a particular theme - in this concert, she performs her extended work called The Mirror. Robert Worby presents electronic music by Carl Stone and People Like Us Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Cd Review, Michael Finnissy's Beat Generation Ballads | 20150425 | Ivan Hewett reviews recent releases of new music with the composer Zoe Martlew and guitarist Tom McKinney, including music by Hans Abrahamsen and Christopher Fox. Michael Finnissy introduces his piano work, Beat Generation Ballads, which was commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and premiered there in November last year. Plus the latest in the series Modern Muses which looks behind some of the key composer-performer partnerships of our times. Jazz drummer Peter Erskine was one of Mark-Anthony Turnage's musical heroes who he'd first heard as the drummer in Weather Report in the late 70s. They talk about meeting in the 1990s and how and why Turnage re-wrote the drum part in his ground-breaking Blood on the Floor with Erskine's input. Ever since, a close musical friendship has flourished, resulting in further Erskine-inspired music. Modern Muses: Peter Erskine and Mark-Anthony Turnage Philip Thomas (piano). Ivan Hewett reviews recent releases of new music with Zoe Martlew and Tom McKinney. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Charlotte Bray, Diana Burrell, John Hopkins, Thomas Hyde | 20180804 | Geoffrey Paterson conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in works by Charlotte Bray, John Hopkins, Diana Burrell and Thomas Hyde. And from an SSO concert given in Birmingham last year, the world premiere of John Croft's Lost Songs for soprano and live electronics, performed by Juliet Fraser and Sound Intermedia. The BBC SSO performs works by Charlotte Bray, John Hopkins, Diana Burrell and Thomas Hyde. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Cheltenham Festival | 20170812 | Tom McKinney presents new music recorded at the Cheltenham Festival last month. Adrien Trybucki: Magma Christophe Bertrand: Madrigal Patrick Gigu耀re: Le sel de la terre Thallein Ensemble Atelier XX/21 members of Ensemble Court-Circuit Mark-Anthony Turnage: Contusion Darren Bloom: Five Brief Lessons Joseph Phibbs: String Quartet No.1 Piatti Quartet French new music experts Ensemble Court-Circuit join ensembles from the conservatoires of Birmingham and Lyon to perform works by some of the most inventive French contemporary composers celebrating micro-tonality and the physicality of sound. And from the UK, the Piatti Quartet showcase new quartets by British and American composers. Also tonight, a new piece for junk electronics by Vitalija Glovackyte recorded at a Kammer Klang concert in London. Tom McKinney presents new music from the Cheltenham Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Choral Works, Peter Maxwell Davis | 20100925 | Tom Service introduces choral works by Gabriel Jackson, Michael Zev Gordon and Gyorgy Ligeti, together with a great renaissance masterpiece, from a concert given at this summer's Cheltenham Festival; and Paul Driver explores what makes modern-day composers continue to look to medieval and renaissance models and vocal textures for inspiration. Gabriel Jackson: Sanctum est verum lumen Ligeti: Lux aeterna Michael Zev Gordon: Allele Tallis: Spem in alium New London Chamber Choir Conducted by James Weeks Plus Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the BBC Philharmonic in his own imaginative and witty mix of old and new, his foxtrot for orchestra on a pavan by John Bull, 'St Thomas Wake'. Playlist: Peter Maxwell Davies: In Nomine II (excerpt) London Sinfonietta / David Atherton Decca 475 6166. Disc 1 Track 10 Peter Maxwell Davies: In Nomine V (excerpt) Decca 475 6166. Disc 1 Track 12 Concert items: Recorded at the Cheltenham Festival on the 10 July 2010 Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E minor Op. 90, 1st movt (excerpt) Andras Schiff (piano) ECM 476 6189. Track 1 Goehr: String Quartet No. 3 (excerpt) Lindsay String Quartet Wergo WER 60093 (LP) S2/1 Tye: Dum transisset II (excerpt) Hesperion XX Astree E8708. Track 15 Brian Ferneyhough: Dum transisset I-IV (excerpt) Arditti String Quartet BBC Recording Peter Maxwell Davies: St Thomas Wake BBC Philharmonic / Peter Maxwell Davies Collins Classics 13082. Track 7 Choral works by Gabriel Jackson, Gyorgy Ligeti, Michael Zev Gordon - and Thomas Tallis. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Chroma At The Spitalfields Festival | 20110813 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music inspired by Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, played by the ensemble Chroma at London's Spitalfields Festival in June. Rolf Hind: Horse Sacrifice Param Vir: Hayagriva Rolf Hind: Sit, Stand, Walk (world premiere) Jonathan Harvey: Sringara Chaconne Also tonight, Sara reports on Rolf Hind's meditation course for musicians at the Guildhall School. Music inspired by Eastern philosophy, by Rolf Hind, Param Vir and Jonathan Harvey. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
City Of London Festival 2011: Australian Composers | 20110820 | ~Hear And Now goes 'Down Under' with a concert from this year's Antipodean-themed City of London Festival featuring the Australian-based Goldner Quartet. Their programme, recorded last month at the elegant Goldsmiths' Hall near St Paul's Cathedral, includes works by some of Australia's leading composers, many of which feature a guest appearance by didgeridoo player William Barton. There's also the first of two reports from Australian broadcaster Julian Day on cutting-edge Australian composers and new-music performers who are living and working in Europe. Ivan Hewett presents. Peter Sculthorpe: Earth Cry Nigel Westlake: String Quartet No.2 William Barton: Hypersonic Matthew Hindson: Didgeribluegrass Goldner String Quartet William Barton (didgeridoo) Nigel Westlake: Entomology Tall Poppies Ensemble. The Goldner String Quartet plays music by leading Australian composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Cityscapes | 20100807 | Robert Worby presents cityscapes in music, from orchestral evocations to soundscape recording. HK Gruber: Manhattan Broadcasts Jennifer Higdon: river sings a song to trees (from CityScape) John Woolrich: Whitel's Ey Richard Rijnvos: NYConcerto BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Garry Walker, conductor John Snijders, piano Also, Robert takes part in a London Soundwalk, led by soundscape composer Hildegard Westerkamp. Robert Worby introduces cityscapes in music, from Gruber, Woolrich, Higdon and Rijnvos. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Colin Matthews And Philip Glass | 20160827 | Colin Matthews at 70 and Philip Glass's Icarus at the Edge of Time Ivan Hewett talks to Colin Matthews about three dazzling orchestral scores, recorded especially for tonight's Hear and Now in MediaCity, Salford as part of the Royal Northern College of Music's recent In Focus series. Premiered at the BBC Proms in 2010, Colin Matthews's Violin Concerto is daring in its anti-heroic quality as the solo violin floats above an orchestral haze conjured up with typically brilliant orchestration. Threnody - dedicated to the memory of Toru Takemitsu - and Broken Symmetry date from the 1990s and form part of a much larger cycle. Colin Matthews describes Broken Symmetry as like a machine going out of control. Also tonight, Philip Glass's Icarus at the Edge of Time; discover the boy who challenges the awesome power of a black hole and the unyielding forces of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Originally created as part of a spectacular science fiction film created and directed by AL and AL and based on a stunning book by the world-renowned theoretical physicist Brian Greene the BBC Philharmonic give this UK premiere with Brian Greene as the narrator. Colin Matthews: Violin Concerto; Threnody; Broken Symmetry Daniel Pioro (violin), BBC Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor) c. 11.00pm Modern Muses Michael Nyman and contralto Hilary Summers discuss a 20-year musical collaboration, including Nyman's 2014 'War Work'. c. 11.20pm Philip Glass: Icarus at the Edge of Time Brian Greene (narrator), BBC Philharmonic, Duncan Ward (conductor) Image of Colin Matthews (c) Maurice Foxall. Ivan Hewett talks to composer Colin Matthews and introduces music by Philip Glass. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Contemporary Harp Music | 20110507 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert of contemporary music featuring the harp. Luciano Berio: Chamber Music Per Nørg倀rd: Harp Concerto No. 2: Through Thorns (UK premiere) Thomas Ad耀s: The Origin of the Harp Gerald Barry: Feldman's Sixpenny Editions (World Premiere) Tunde Jegede (kora) Allison Bell (soprano) Helen Tunstall (harp) London Sinfonietta conductor Thomas Ad耀s The works are interspersed with traditional kora music played by Tunde Jegede. Sara Mohr-Pietsch with music by Luciano Berio, Per Norgard, Thomas Ades and Gerald Barry. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Contemporary Lithuanian Music | 20091017 | Zoe Martlew presents a concert of contemporary Lithuanian music recorded at Kings Place in London. Curated by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, the concert, entitled 'Twittering Machines and Sutartines', showcases works by both young Lithuanian composers and older figures from the Lithuanian new music scene, including the maverick Fluxus king George Maciunas. Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) Chordos String Quartet Egidija Medeksaite: Oscillum (cello and live-electronics) 12:23 Extract from 'El Rue Rue' (Four voiced Sutartine) Performed by A Gurskiene, G Rimsaite, Daudytes, A Fokas 1993 CD Lituanus JACD065 Track 3 Ricardas Kabelis: Invariations (string quartet) UK premiere 16:03 Arturas Bumsteinas: Heap of Language (after Robert Smithson - solo cello, string quartet and live electronics) - world premiere 10:08 George Maciunas: In Memoriam to Adriano Olivetti (string quartet and cello) 5:09 Rytis Mazulis: 14 Canons (solo cello and live electronics) - world premiere 13:57 Bronius Kutavicius: Anno cum tettigonia (string quartet and electronics) - UK premiere 16:17 Zoe Martlew with a concert of contemporary Lithuanian music from Kings Place in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Crash Ensemble | 20100612 | Robert Worby presents a concert by the Dublin-based Crash Ensemble, recorded at London's King's Place. American minimalists Terry Riley and David Lang are programmed alongside young Irish composers, and the concert ends with an extended work for traditional Irish singer and ensemble by Donnacha Dennehy. David Lang: Forced March Linda Buckley: Do You Remember the Planets Terry Riley: Ancient Giant Hairy Nude Warriors Racing Down the Slopes of Battle Jonathan Nangle: our headlights blew softly into the black Donnacha Dennehy: Grက Agus Bကs Iarla O'Lionကird (sean n s singer) Crash Ensemble conducted by Alan Pierson. Crash Ensemble plays Terry Riley, David Lang, Linda Buckley and Donnacha Dennehy. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Crosscurrents Festival 2018 | 20180407 | Tom McKinney presents highlights from the recent CrossCurrents Festival at the University of Birmingham. The brand-new ensemble Loki conducted by Daniele Rosina give world premieres of works by Richard Ayres, Michael Zev Gordon and Ryan Latimer, featuring soprano Sarah Gabriel, and the Ligeti Quartet play music by Alfred Schnittke, Tanya Tagaq and John Zorn. Tom McKinney presents highlights from the CrossCurrents Festival at Birmingham University. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Cut And Splice 2011 | 20111105 | Robert Worby presents performances from this year's Cut & Splice Festival, co-curated by Hear And Now and Sound And Music at the ICA in London this week. This year's theme is Collectives, and features performances by Jennifer Walshe's Grupat collective, and the Wandelweiser collective, which includes composer/performers Michael Pisaro, Eva-Maria Houben and Antoine Beuger. Wandelweiser music is about "the evaluation and integration of silence rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds." John Cage is a figure of central importance to them, especially the work featured in this week's instalment of the Hear and Now 50: Cage's legendary "silent" piece, 4'33" . Artist Tacita Dean describes filming Cage's partner Merce Cunningham performing a new dance solo to the work; Richard Bernas puts the piece into the context of the 1950s New York art scene; plus an archive recording of Cage himself explaining some of the ideas that led him to compose a piece for a performer who makes no sound. Ukeoirn O'Connor: One Song Jennifer Walshe (voice) 2'05` The Dowager Marchylove: The Wasistas of Thereswhere Jennifer Walshe (voice) 15'34` John Cage: 2'52` A unique realisation for radio by Robert Worby and Felix Carey 2'52` Michael Pisaro: melody, silence Michael Pisaro (guitar) 16'05` Detleva Verens: Scintillia Jennifer Walshe (voice) 4'32 Violetta Mahon: Dream Diaries Ensemble Ascolta 16'53` Robert Worby presents Jennifer Walshe and Wandelweiser playing at Cut and Splice 2011. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Cut And Splice 2017 | 20170325 | 20190323 (R3) | Robert Worby presents recordings from the 2017 Cut & Splice festival of experimental music and sound art, which was curated and performed by the new music ensemble Distractfold. The event was staged at Hall退 St Peter's, a Grade II-listed deconsecrated church in the former industrial district of Ancoats, Manchester. Distractfold's programming aims to reveal the hidden sonorities within instruments and objects through processing, and explore the temporal and spatial dislocation of sound through loudspeakers. Tonight we hear acoustic and spatially diffused electroacoustic works by Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Denis Smalley, Fabrice Fitch, Helena Gough and Mauricio Pauly. And from nearby Hall退 at St Michael's we listen in on some of the sound installations that were on offer throughout the weekend including works by Adam Basanta and Christina Kubisch, whose Electrical Walks has also been specially recreated as a binaural online experience for BBC Radio 3 listeners. Steven Kazuo Takasugi: The Man Who Couldn't Stop Laughing - music theatre for amplified quartet and playback (2012-14, UK Premiere) Denis Smalley: Empty Vessels - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (1997) Fabrice Fitch: Agricola IXe - for bass clarinet and string trio (2016) Helena Gough: Silt - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (2007) Mauricio Pauly: Charred Edifice Shining - for amplified string trio with performative electronics (2017) Elsa Justel: Gwerz - 8-channel electroacoustic work (2002) Cut and Splice is a partnership between BBC Radio 3 and Sound and Music, the national charity for new music. First broadcast in March 2017. Recordings from the 2017 Cut and Splice festival, including Steven Kazuo Takasugi. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions Robert Worby presents recordings from the 2017 Cut & Splice festival of experimental music and sound art, which was curated and performed by the new music ensemble Distractfold. The event was staged at Hall退 St Peter's, a Grade II-listed deconsecrated church in the former industrial district of Ancoats, Manchester. Distractfold's programming aims to reveal the hidden sonorities within instruments and objects through processing, and explore the temporal and spatial dislocation of sound through loudspeakers. Tonight we hear acoustic and spatially diffused electroacoustic works by Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Denis Smalley, Fabrice Fitch, Helena Gough and Mauricio Pauly. And from nearby Hall退 at St Michael's we listen in on some of the sound installations that were on offer throughout the weekend including works by Adam Basanta and Christina Kubisch, whose Electrical Walks has also been specially recreated as a binaural online experience for BBC Radio 3 listeners. Steven Kazuo Takasugi: The Man Who Couldn't Stop Laughing - music theatre for amplified quartet and playback (2012-14, UK Premiere) Denis Smalley: Empty Vessels - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (1997) Fabrice Fitch: Agricola IXe - for bass clarinet and string trio (2016) Helena Gough: Silt - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (2007) Mauricio Pauly: Charred Edifice Shining - for amplified string trio with performative electronics (2017) Elsa Justel: Gwerz - 8-channel electroacoustic work (2002) Cut and Splice is a partnership between BBC Radio 3 and Sound and Music, the national charity for new music. First broadcast in March 2017. Recordings from the 2017 Cut and Splice festival, including Steven Kazuo Takasugi. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions |
Cut And Splice, Varese Poeme Electronique | 20111112 | Robert Worby presents more performances from this year's Cut & Splice Festival, co-curated by Hear And Now and Sound And Music at the ICA in London last week. This year's theme is Collectives, and features performances by Jennifer Walshe's Grupat collective, and the Wandelweiser collective. Grupat has a playful and wide-ranging approach that encompasses film, sonic sculpture and interventions alongside concert music. Wandelweiser music is about 'the evaluation and integration of silence rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds', inspired by the ideas of John Cage. And in the Hear And Now 50 series, composer and rock musician Tyondai Braxton explains why he is so inspired by the Po耀me 退lectronique by Edgard Var耀se, while Gillian Moore tells the story of Var耀se's long struggle to create a futuristic music that he finally achieved in this work, composed for an array of hundreds of loudspeakers at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. Robert Worby presents music by Jennifer Walshe and Wandelweiser from Cut and Splice 2011. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Dai Fujikura, Larry Goves, Aldo Clementi | 20100710 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents two works new to the UK, plus a Modernist classic, played by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Andr退 de Ridder Dai Fujikura: Secret Forest (UK premiere) Larry Goves: Things that are blue, things that are white and things that are black (World Premiere) Aldo Clementi Triplum Also a report on the exhibition of John Cage's artworks at the Baltic in Gateshead, and a preview of this year's Soundwaves Festival in Brighton (please scroll down for a link to more info). In the report on the John Cage exhibition excerpts of the following can be heard... John Cage: 10'40.3' from 26'1.1499' for a string player version for violoncello solo John Cage: etudes boreales for percussionist using a piano John Cage: harmony XXIV for violoncello and piano John Cage: harmony XIII for violoncello and piano Performed by Friedrich Gauwerky (violoncello) and Mark Knoop (piano) Taken from the new CD on Wergo (WER 6718 2) John Cage: Fontana Mix Eberhard Blum (flute) CD: Hat Hut (hat ART CD 6125) Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music by Dai Fujikura, Larry Goves and Aldo Clementi. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
David Sawer, Robin Walker, Stephen Elcock, Emily Howard | 20100529 | Ivan Hewett explores music by David Sawer, Robin Walker, Stephen Elcock and Emily Howard with the composers. Plus a look at small-scale music theatre in the UK, from 1945 until today. Stephen Elcock: Hammering Robin Walker: The Stone King David Sawer: the greatest happiness principle David Sawer: Piano Concerto Emily Howard: Magnetite Rolf Hind, piano BBC Philharmonic James MacMillan, conductor. Ivan Hewett presents music by David Sawer, Robin Walker, Stephen Elcock and Emily Howard. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Donaueschingen 2014 And Borealis Music Festivals | 20150620 | Tom Service presents three premieres from Germany's Donaueschingen Festival 2014 and a work for 'crazy sampler and instruments' from Norway's Borealis Contemporary Music Festival. Chiyoko Szlavnics Inner Voicings (2014) (Premiere) Klangforum Wien, Ilan Volkov (conductor) Wolfgang Rihm Sound as Will, for trumpet and ensemble (2014) (Premiere) Marco Blaauw (trumpet) Peter Ablinger POINTS AND VIEWS (2014) (Premiere) 1. Tintelstrahldruck, 6,40 x 6,40m, 16 parts 2. Ensemble, 2 Pianos, 2 Loudspeakers, 16 parts (2014) Ensemble Modern, Jonathan Stockhammer (director) approx 11.10pm Modern Muses, Hear and Now's downloadable series exploring some of the key composer performer partnerships of our time. This week, as part of Radio 3's Classical Voice season, David Lang and vocalist Shara Worden talk about their collaboration on death speaks; Lang's 21st-century take on Schubert song was inspired by Shara Worden's voice, at once rooted in classical and indie pop music. Then from the 2015 Borealis Festival, Bergen: Johannes Kreidler Living in a Box for large ensemble and sampler BIT20 Ensemble, Jessica Cottis (director). Tom Service presents highlights from the 2014 Donaueschingen and Borealis Music Festivals. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Donaueschingen Festival 2018 | 20181229 | ~Hear And Now at the Donaueschingen Festival 2018. Founded in 1921 by a committee which included Richard Strauss and Ferrucio Busoni, this festival held each October in the small south-western German town of Donaueschingen, is one of the most important events in the international contemporary music calendar. In Malin B倀ng's new piece the orchestra is acted on by processes of rapprochement and rejection, confrontation and merging and considers how a few can influence and manipulate the opinion of a majority. Ivan Fedele works with the musicians' breathing and the emergence and expiry of sounds. Marco Stroppa focuses on a poem by William Butler Yeats in his concerto for electronics and orchestra: a tender declaration of love to the creatures of nature. And in Isabel Mundrys scoring of an interview with a refugee called Mouhanad she demonstrates both a private and a wider political concern. Tom Service talks to the festival's artistic director, Bj怀rn Gottstein about this music and also about some of the key cultural currents at work in music today. Ivan Fedele: Air on Air for basset horn and orchestra (2018) Malin B倀ng: splinters of ebullient rebellion (2018) for orchestra Isabel Mundry: Mouhanad for a cappella choir (2018) Marco Stroppa: Come Play With Me for electronics and orchestra Michele Marelli, basset horn IRCAM SWR Vocal Ensemble, Florian Helgathand (conductor) SWR Symphony Orchestra, Pascal Roph退 (conductor) Tom Service presents music by Malin Bang and Marco Stroppa. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Donaueschingen Musiktage 2015 | 20160305 | Famous both for its brewery and as the source of the Danube, since 1921 the Black Forest town of Donaueschingen has also been the source of first performances of some of the seminal masterpieces of the last nine decades. Pushing the boundaries at Donaueschingen Musiktage has been a veritable Who's Who of new music from Schoenberg to Ligeti, Cage to Stockhausen, Xenakis to Wolfgang Rihm. Tom Service presents a handful of last year's Festival highlights including the microtonal adventures of a trombone octet by Georg Friedrich Haas, Orm Finnendahl's intriguing mix of the human, electronic and mechanical, and an epic for electronics and ensemble from Olga Neuwirth inspired by Herman Melville, Venice and Luigi Nono. Georg Friedrich Haas: Trombone Octet Hanover Trombone Unit Orm Finnendahl: AST Mosaik Ensemble Enno Poppe (director) Olga Neuwirth: Le Encantadas o le avventure nel mare delle meraviglie Ensemble intercontemporain Matthias Pintscher (director). Tom Service presents highlights from the 2015 Donaueschingen Musiktage. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Duncan Ward, Tarik O'regan, Huw Watkins, Jennifer Walshe | 20140927 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a performance from the Vale of Glamorgan Festival staged at Wales Millennium Centre in May featuring music by Duncan Ward, Tarik O'Regan and Huw Watkins played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Plus, composer Jennifer Walshe's set from The New Experimentalists concert from earlier this year at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. And, in Composers' Rooms, Sara is at the Cambridgeshire home of Alexander Goehr. Fumes Flute concerto Adam Walker (flute) Heart of Darkness - suite with Simon Callow (narrator) BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Duncan Ward (conductor). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents the BBC NOW performing at the 2014 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Eavesdropping | 20180414 | Music from Eavesdropping - a symposium on female creativity in new music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elaine Mitchener's Sweet Tooth | 20171230 | Tom McKinney presents the first broadcast of Elaine Mitchener's Sweet Tooth, a music theatre piece exploring the links between the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the British sugar industry, drawing on texts from an 18th-century slave song, a traditional Jamaican religious invocation and the records of a 19th-century plantation owner. The work is performed by Elaine Mitchener (vocal), Jason Yarde (saxophone), Mark Sanders (percussion) and Sylvia Hallett (violin, accordion), and was recorded at The Bluecoat in Liverpool in November. Also tonight, a return to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: Explore Ensemble perform Patricia Alessandrini's Tracer la lune d'un doigt; plus a round-up of recent releases including music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Brice Pauset and Fabrice Fitch, along with a newly unearthed album of film music by Bernard Parmegiani. Photo by Brian Roberts. Tom McKinney presents Elaine Mitchener's powerful music theatre piece Sweet Tooth. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Eliane Radigue And Lee Gamble | 20170930 | Tom McKinney presents a special one-off performance by the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists inside the Great Masson Cavern at Heights of Abraham in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. The event is curated by composer Shiva Feshareki and features world premieres of works by Lee Gamble and Eliane Radigue, artists from contrasting electronic backgrounds who have recently ventured into purely acoustic territory. Concluding the programme, an electronic work of Radigue's from 1983, Mila's Journey Inspired by a Dream, based on 11th-century Tibetan saint and poet Milarepa, and featuring the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley. Lee Gamble: Karstics Part 1 (world premiere) David Geoghegan (trumpet) Matt Palmer (trumpet) Sasha Koushk-Jalali (tuba) Eliane Radigue: Occam XXI Angharad Davies (violin) Eliane Radigue: Occam River XV (world premiere) Dominic Lash (double bass) Eliane Radigue: Occam XVII Lee Gamble: Karstics Part 2 Robert Ames (viola) Oliver Coates (cello) Sasha Koushk-Jalali (tuba). New music by Lee Gamble and Eliane Radigue, performed in a cave in Derbyshire. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elision Ensemble At The 2011 City Of London Festival | 20110827 | ~Hear And Now goes 'Down Under' with a concert from this year's Antipodean-themed City of London Festival featuring the Australian-based Elision Ensemble. Their programme, recorded last month, includes works by some of Australia's leading composers. There's also the second of two reports from Australian broadcaster Julian Day on cutting-edge Australian composers and new-music performers who are living and working in Europe. Presenter Ivan Hewett is joined in the studio by Daryl Buckley, artistic director of Elision Ensemble. Michael Finnissy: Aijal Liza Lim: Invisibility David Lumsdaine: Kangaroo Hunt John Rodgers: Amor (from Inferno) Percy Grainger: Random Round Michael Finnissy: Red Earth BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents the Elision Ensemble in new music by Australian composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elliott Carter | 20081206 | Composer Elliott Carter, who celebrates his centenary year in 2008, talks to Ivan Hewett about his long life and career, including his apprentice years with Nadia Boulanger, the emergence of the individual style that has marked him as one of the most influential figures on the modernist scene and his fascination with jazz. The Harmony of Morning (excerpt) 2:47 John Oliver Chorale From CD KOCH 371782 Tk 3 Piano Sonata 22:32 Charles Rosen (piano) From CD ETCETERA KTC 1008 Tk 2 Concerto for orchestra (excerpt) 1:42 London Sinfonietta Oliver Knussen From CD Virgin Classics VC 7915032 Tk 1 Penthode 19:22 Ensemble Intercontemporain Pierre Boulez (conductor) From CD ERATO ECD 75553 Tk 9 Quartet for strings no. 2 (excerpt) 0:34 Juilliard String Quartet From CD Sony B 0000027J7 Adagio Tenebroso 17:30 BBC Symphony Orchestra Oliver Knussen (conductor) From CD Deutsche Grammophon DG 4596602 Tk 9 Ivan Hewett talks to composer Elliott Carter, who celebrates his 100th birthday in 2008. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elliott Carter In Glasgow | 20140830 | Tom Service presents performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's two-concert celebration of the American composer Elliott Carter, staged at City Halls in Glasgow in May this year and featuring several Scottish premieres. Conductors Ryan Wigglesworth and Diego Masson direct a wide range of Carter's orchestral music, with a particular focus on his works for piano and orchestra - played by Nicolas Hodges, who worked closely with Carter in the later years of his long life. Hodges also plays solo and chamber pieces by Carter. And in this week's episode in the Hear and Now Composers' Rooms series, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the new Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir. Tom Service presents the BBC SSO performing music by Elliott Carter. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elliott Carter Tribute, Eliane Radigue | 20121110 | Ivan Hewett pays tribute to the American composer Elliott Carter who died earlier this week, with a repeat broadcast of an interview first heard in 2008. And in this week's Hear and Now Fifty, author and journalist Rob Young nominates French composer Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa, which combines drone-like electronics with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley singing and reading the words of the 11th-century Tibetan Buddhist poet Milarepa. With commentary from Richard Whitelaw, Head of Programmes at Sound and Music. Ivan Hewett presents a tribute to Elliott Carter and music from Eliane Radigue. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Elliott Carter, Ian Wilson, Liza Lim | 20141115 | Poetry is the spur for music written towards the end of Elliott Carter's long life, recorded at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Carter retrospective earlier this year. Carter's 'Symphonia sum fluxae pretium spei' is a product of his ninth decade. It's a three-movement, forty-five minute orchestral tour de force inspired by seventeenth-century English poet Richard Crawshaw's conceit of observing human life from a bubble floating in the air. An image from William Carlos Williams's 'Rain' permeates Carter's 2002 'Boston Concerto'. 'As the rain falls so does your love bathe every open object of the world' provokes shimmering orchestration from Carter and a dedication to his wife, Helen. Next month Ian Wilson celebrates reaching a mere half century. 'Causeway' is the final part of a trilogy reflecting aspects of Wilson's native Northern Ireland. Here, Northern Ireland's geology is the starting point and Wilson uses electronically-generated samples to evoke shifting tectonic plates, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which pervade the orchestral texture, including a concertante group of flute, oboe, horn and trumpet. And in Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Liza Lim's Manchester home. Presented by Ivan Hewett Elliott Carter: Boston Concerto Diego Masson, conductor Elliott Carter: Symphonia sum fluxae pretium spei Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor Liza Lim: Diabolical Birds Zurich New Music Ensemble Jürg Henneberger, conductor Ian Wilson: Causeway Ulster Orchestra JoAnn Falletta, conductor. Poetry-inspired music by Elliott Carter and a recent work, Causeway, by Ian Wilson. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Emily Howard, To See The Invisible | 20180616 | Tom McKinney introduces a recording of Emily Howard's new opera, To See The Invisible, from the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival. Based on a short story by Robert Silverberg, the opera explores the concept of shunning and social isolation in a dystopian world. Plus two of Emily's shorter works: Threnos and Leviathan. Music by Emily Howard, words by Selma Dimitrijevic after a short story by Robert Silverberg. Dan Ayling - director Nicholas Morris - The Invisible Anna Dennis - The Other Invisible Anne Mason - Mother / The Judge / Client 1 / Walker 2 Peter Savidge - Father / Brothel Owner / Clerk 4 / Walker 1 Caryl Hughes - Sister / Clerk 1 / Prostitute 2 / Vendor Daniel Norman - Guard 1 / Clerk 3 / Client 2 / Ticket Buyer Nathan Vale - Guard 2 / Clerk 2 / Prostitute 1 / Ticket Seller Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Richard Baker - conductor Chamber Opera in one act Aldeburgh Festival commission, world premiere. Also in the programme, from commercial disc: "Threnos" (2015) Lucy Goddard (mezzo soprano) Simon Whiteley (bass) "Leviathan" (2014-15) Scapegoat Photo credit - Stephen Cummiskey. Emily Howard's new opera, To See The Invisible, recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Emulsion Festival 2014 | 20140621 | Ed McKeon presents highlights from the 2014 Emulsion Festival at Village Underground in London. The festival, curated by Trish Clowes and Luke Styles, explores the boundaries between notated and improvised music. Tonight's programme features Ensemble Amorpha premiering a new version of Chris Mayo's Birchfield Close, the vocal trio Juice singing Anna Meredith and Gabriel Jackson, and the Emulsion Sinfonietta - a mix of jazz and classical players, playing music by Luke Styles and a new Calum Gourlay commission. Plus Composers' Rooms: this week Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin at home - in Kent! Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Emulsion New Music Festival | 20170311 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to the Jazz saxophonist Trish Clowes about her Emulsion V project at the Midland Arts Centre in Birmingham. The latest event in her Emulsion series, combining musicians she admires in contemporary Jazz and contemporary Classical music into one project, Emulsion V drew a large and diverse crowd to the MAC, Birmingham. As Trish Clowes explains: "Everyone has their own take on where the improvised music scene is going, Emulsion offers up a few ideas, things to think about... as well as bringing together different audiences and reminding people of how important it is to challenge one's expectations, and how exploring and listening to new music is exciting not daunting." Also tonight, American saxophonist Colin Stetson's re-imagining of Gorecki's classic Symphony No 3. The Emulsion Sinfonietta perform: Hans Koller: Happy Mountain (premiere) Chris Montague: Beamish Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian: Muted Lines (premiere) Trish Clowes: Tap Dance (for Baby Dodds) (premiere) Percy Pursglove: He, whose dreams will never unfold (for DP) (premiere) Bobbie Jane Gardner: Tapeworm Joe Cutler: Karembeu's Guide to the Complete Defensive Midfielder Anna Olsson: The Woodcarver (premiere) Iain Ballamy: Chantries Colin Stetson: Sorrow - A reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony. Colin Stetson (saxophones and contrabass clarinet), Matt Bauder and Dan Bennett (saxophones and clarinet), Megan Stetson (voice), Sarah Neufeld and Tobias Preisig (violin), Niamh Molloy (cello), Justin Walter (keyboard), Shahzad Ismaily (synthesizer), Ryan Ferreira and Grey Mcmurray (guitar), Greg Fox (drums) [recorded at Bates Mill Blending Shed during the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival]. Jazz saxophonist Trish Clowes talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about her Emulsion V project. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Estonian Piano Orchestra | 20110618 | Ivan Hewett presents a programme of new music from Estonia, featuring the eight-piece Estonian Piano Orchestra live in concert at this year's Eeste Fest in London. Jaan Raats: Concerto for Eight Pianists on Four Pianos op.126 (2005) Ulo Krigul: Aquaspherics (2010) Erkki-Sven Tuur: Crystallisatio for 3 flutes, glockenspiel, strings and live electronics (1995) Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tonu Kaljuste Urmas Sisask: Voices of the Universe op.88 (2002) Arvo Part: Fur Alina (1976) Lauri Vainmaa (piano). The Estonian Piano Orchestra in concert at the 2011 Eeste Fest in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
European Festivals | 20140405 | Tom Service presents works from two of Europe's longest established new music Festivals. Holland's Gaudeamus Muziekweek began in 1945 and aims to be 'a platform and accelerator for developments within contemporary music'. But the granddaddy of them all is Donaueschingen, the festival set in a small Black Forest town which since 1921 has attracted many of the great names of new music. Plus 'Composers' Rooms': in the first of a major new series of conversations with composers in their workspaces, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Oliver Knussen at his home in Suffolk, talking to him about the objects which surround him in his kitchen-cum-study, from miniature owls to posters of Berg and Stravinsky, and how they influence the music he writes. Thomas Bensdorp: For the amusement of all good children who can neither read nor run Curious Chamber Players Martjin Padding: HOP Ereprijs Composers' Rooms: Oliver Knussen Philippe Manoury: In Situ Ensemble Modern WDR Symphony Orchestra Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor) Peter Adriaansz: Phrase Ensemble Klang. Tom Service presents new music from two European festivals: Gaudeamus and Donaueschingen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Exchange And Return: Mira Calix, Larry Goves, Tansy Davies | 20110903 | Sara Mohr Pietsch presents music from Mira Calix, Larry Goves and Tansy Davies, and discusses their year long compositional project, Exchange and Return. Exchange and Return involved Mira Calix sharing and exchanging her artistic experiences, practices and background, rooted in dance music and experimental electronic music, with two composers who come from a more formal classical background. Larry Goves and Tansy Davies in return, taught Mira Calix the fundamentals of writing for and orchestrating real instruments. ~Hear And Now has been following the project across the year, and was present at the Britten Studios in Aldeburgh for the final concert, where the music composed across the year was performed. Performers: Peter Sparks (Clarinet) Catrin Win Morgan (Violin) Haruko Motohashi (Violin) David Aspin (Viola) Oliver Coates (Cello) Sarah Nicholls (Piano) Sarah Cresswell (Percussion) Mira Calix & Larry Goves (Live Electronics). Sara Mohr Pietsch presents music from Mira Calix, Larry Goves and Tansy Davies. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Experimental Composers | 20090307 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch is joined in the studio by experimental composer Christopher Fox to introduce the first performance of comme ses paroles, his major work for voices and cello. It was recorded at the 2008 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and performed by Exaudi conducted by James Weeks, with cellist Anton Lukoszevieze. Fox says of the musicians who play his music regularly: 'it is they who challenge me - nothing less than the extraordinary will satisfy them'. They also discuss the influence of American maverick John Cage, and introduce two of his early works - Six Short Inventions and Imaginary Landscape No 1, played by Apartment House. John Cage: Six Short Inventions (7:19) John Cage: Imaginary Landscape No 1 (7:28) Christopher Fox: Comme ses Paroles (74:24) Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) James Weeks (conductor) Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents experimental music by John Cage and Christopher Fox. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Explore Ensemble, New Releases, Laurence Crane, H\u00e5kon Stene | 20161008 | Presented by Robert Worby Including music from the Principal Sound festival performed by Explore Ensemble, the latest in Hear and Now's Modern Muses series with composer Laurence Crane and percussionist H倀kon Stene, and Radio 3's Embedded Composer in 3, Matthew Kaner, joins Robert to review new music releases. Enno POPPE: Gel怀schte Lieder FELDMAN: Spring of Chosroes GRISEY: Talea ROMITELLI: Domeniche alla periferia dell'impero Nicholas Moroz & Arne Gieshoff (artistic directors) New releases with Matthew Kaner: Mark BOWDEN: Lyra - 3rd movement (extract) Oliver Coates (cello) BBC National Orchestra of Wales Grant Llewellyn (conductor) NMC D214 Hans ABRAHAMSEN: Three Little Nocturnes - no.3 Arditti Quartet Frode Haltli (accordion) ECM 2496 Angharad DAVIES/Tisha MUKARJI: For Lucio II Angharad Davies (violin) Tisha Mukarji (piano) ANOTHER TIMBRE AT99 Peter ADRIAANZ: Enclosures - no.1 Trio Scordatura ERGODOS ER25 Image (c) Shelia Burnett. Robert Worby presents Explore Ensemble at the 2016 Principal Sound Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Florian Hecker's Inspection, Maida Vale Project | 20161203 | Presented by Robert Worby, live from the BBC's Maida Vale studios. As part of Radio 3's 70th season, the German composer and artist Florian Hecker creates a major new electroacoustic work inspired by the pioneering spirit of the Third Programme. "Inspection - Maida Vale Project" uses computer generated sound, a synthetic voice, and sound processed through a legendary piece of vintage equipment, the EMS Vocoder 5000, used by the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop at Maida Vale in the 1970s. In partnership with BBC Research and Development, Hecker's new multi-channel surround sound piece will be presented in 360 degree binaural sound via the Radio 3 website, in the BBC's first ever live binaural broadcast. Alongside the new work, Florian Hecker curates a programme of music by other composers, exploring the analysis and transformation of sound. A new work by Florian Hecker for the BBC's first-ever live binaural broadcast. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Flux Quartet | 20170225 | Ivan Hewett introduces a specially recorded session by the New York-based Flux Quartet, featuring three contrasting American works alongside the first broadcast of Julian Anderson's String Quartet No.2. And during the course of the programme, Robert Worby pays tribute to the accordionist, electronic-music pioneer and founder of 'Deep Listening', the American composer Pauline Oliveros, who died last November. Conlon Nancarrow: String Quartet No.3 (1987) Tom Chiu: RETROCON (2015) Julian Anderson: String Quartet No.2 "300 Weihnachtslieder" (2014) Michael Gordon: Clouded Yellow (2010) Pauline Oliveros: Dream Time (1995); Bye Bye Butterfly (1965); Trog Arena (1989); Deep Hockets; I of IV (1966). Flux Quartet in Nancarrow, Chiu, Anderson and Gordon. Plus a tribute to Pauline Oliveros. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Four International Composers | 20100206 | Ed McKeon introduces a concert programme of works by four composers hailing from Europe, the UK and America, played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Jac van Steen conducts David Sawer's Byrnan Wood - now a modern classic which marked the composer's rise to major public recognition when it was premiered at the BBC Proms in 1992. Arlene Sierra - an American-born composer now resident in the UK - is represented by her more recent work, Aquilo, which won Sierra the Takemitsu Prize in 2001. Huw Watkins, a pianist/composer still in his early thirties performs his own Piano Concerto, which was commissioned by the BBC for this orchestra in 2002. And German composer Christian Jost, whose music the BBCNOW has warmly espoused recently, is represented by his 2003 composition CocoonSymphonie: Five Gateways of a Journey into the Interior. (photo of Ed McKeon by Katya Evdokimova) David Sawer: Byrnan Wood (20:46) Jac Van Steen (conductor) Arlene Sierra: Aquilo (10:30) Huw Watkins: Piano Concerto (21:47) Huw Watkins (piano) Christian Jost: Cocoonsymphonie (23:56) The BBC NOW performs music by four international composers: Sawer, Sierra, Watkins, Jost. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Francisco Lopez, Live At Cafe Oto | 20150314 | Robert Worby presents a live broadcast of a performance by the Spanish electronic composer and sound artist Francisco Lopez. Appearing at London's Caf退 Oto for the first time, Lopez will perform two forty-minute pieces, specially created for Hear and Now, mixed and diffused in quadraphonic sound through speakers placed in the four corners of the room. Lopez is recognized as one of the foremost artists working with sound today, and has developed a highly original and uncompromising sonic language that utilizes his own recordings made in some of the harshest natural and industrial environments around the world. This broadcast will be made available as 4.0 surround sound, both live and for 30 days after transmission. Robert Worby presents Francisco Lopez performing live from London's Cafe Oto. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Frank Zappa's 200 Motels | 20131109 | Tom Service presents the UK premiere of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels, a suite from the orchestral soundtrack to the American composer's surrealist documentary film about life on the road as a rock musician. Containing very strong language thoughout, it was banned from live performance in the UK in 1971 on grounds of obscenity, but was finally staged in London last month as part of the Rest is Noise festival, the South Bank's ongoing survey of music from the twentieth century. Tom Service is joined by author Ben Watson, who makes the case for this work as Zappa's misunderstood masterpiece. Frank Zappa: 200 Motels Claron McFadden, soprano Tony Guilfoyle (Frank) Richard Strange (Narrator, Rance) Ian Shaw (Mark) Brendan Reilly (Howard, Cowboy Burt) Sophia Brous (Groupie 1, Larry the Dwarf) Diva Zappa (Groupie 2, Lucy) Jessica Hynes (Good Conscience) Jay Rayner (Bad Conscience, Ginger) Scott Thunes (Jeff) London Voices Southbank Sinfonia BBC Concert Orchestra Jurjen Hempel, conductor. Tom Service presents the UK premiere of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Frederic Acquaviva, Lore Lixenberg, Iain Chambers | 20180929 | Radiophonic compositions inspired by city sounds are the focus in tonight's programme. Fr退d退ric Aquaviva's £p@n®di$n (LPOANRDIOSN) is a concerto for town and voice, using collaged ambient recordings from the streets of London and Paris, and the virtuoso voice of Lore Lixenberg. The title is an amalgamation of the letters featured in the two cities. Iain Chambers' House Of Sound is a sound work that time-travels from the sounds of medieval London to the present day. Fr退d退ric Acquaviva's piece is a co-production between BBC Radio 3 and Radio France. Iain Chambers' piece was commissioned by West Deutsche Rundfunk. City-inspired radiophonic compositions by Iain Chambers and Frederic Acquaviva Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Free Thinking: Tearing Up The Rule Book | 20151107 | As part of Free Thinking, Tom Service talks to one of the most visionary and rule-breaking contemporary composers, Helmut Lachenmann, who turns 80 on 27th November. The programme includes a selection of works chosen by Helmut Lachenmann. Tom Service also pays tribute to the British-Australian composer Roger Smalley, who died in August this year and was one of the most distinctive composers of the post-Second World War generation. Plus, Kerry Andrew visits BALTIC 39 in Newcastle, where Free Thinking is taking place this weekend, to report on Peter J Evans's new sound-installation, Broken Telephone. Tom Service talks to Helmut Lachenmann who turns 80. Plus Peter Evans at Baltic 39. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
French Focus | 20140315 | Ivan Hewett introduces a recent concert of contemporary music from France performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with conductor Otto Tausk, bringing together the work of elder statesman Pierre Boulez with two composers from the younger generation, Eric Tanguy and Pascal Dusapin. Alongside Dusapin's orchestral study Extenso we hear his large-scale choral work based on the Greek myth of Niobe. Also in tonight's programme, Lucy Railton and Sam Mackay discuss the work of the late Bernard Parmegiani, a key figure in electronic music from the 1960s onwards and the focus of a London Contemporary Music Festival event next weekend. Pierre Boulez: Domaines Robert Plane (clarinet) Eric Tanguy: Eclipse Pascal Dusapin Extenso Otto Tausk (conductor) Pascal Dusapin: Niobe Claire Booth (soprano) Philharmonia Voices Franck Ollu (conductor). Ivan Hewett with music by Boulez, Eric Tanguy, Pascal Dusapin and Bernard Parmegiani. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Frontiers Festival 2014 | 20140426 | Robert Worby presents highlights from the recent Frontiers Festival in Birmingham which brought together the experimental sounds of downtown New York with those of Birmingham's own vibrant new music scene. As well as pieces by Earle Brown, Elliott Sharp and the late Robert Ashley, Robert visits a graphic score exhibition at Birmingham's new library and meets its curator Joe Scarffe. In the fourth of our new series Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Dai Fujikura at his London studio inside a converted fire station. And to mark the 50th birthday this year of the American Nonesuch label, a look back at one of its pioneering early electronic albums, Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon, in a feature that includes contributions from Four Tet's Kieran Hebden and writer Rob Young. Elliott Sharp: Occam's Razor for double string quartet Elysian Quartet and Nuntempa Robert Ashley String Quartet Describing the Motion of Large Real Bodies for string quartet and electronics Elysian Quartet and 42 electronic artists directed by James Dooley Earle Brown: December 1952 Thallein Ensemble directed by Howard Skempton Morton Subotnick: Silver Apples of the Moon (Part B). Robert Worby presents music from the 2014 Frontiers Festival in Birmingham. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gary Carpenter Birthday, Takemitsu | 20120225 | Ivan Hewett introduces highlights from a concert given in Liverpool by Ensemble 10/10, conducted by Clark Rundell, celebrating Gary Carpenter's 60th birthday. His One Million Tiny Operas About Britain appears alongside Azaleas - the fourth work to be performed in the Encore series - an initiative by the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC Radio 3 that offers performances of works that have been unjustly neglected from the concert stage. Ensemble 10/10's concert also featured world premieres from Liverpool associated composers, Stephen Pratt and Graham Warner. And Ivan introduces the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, musician and writer David Toop celebrates Toru Takemitsu's soundtrack for Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 chiller Kwaidan, based on Lefcadio Hearn's retelling of Japananese ghost stories; film scholar Peter Grilli describes how the composer worked closely with the director and recording technicians to create a soundworld that was integral to the drama of the film. Programme details: Stephen Pratt On Reflection (wp) Graham Warner Viroconium Cornoviorum (wp) Gary Carpenter Azaleas (An RPS/BBC Radio 3 ENCORE work) ~Hear And Now Fifty Toru Takemitsu's soundtrack for Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 chiller Kwaidan Gary Carpenter One Million Tiny Operas About Britain Hans Abrahamsen Herbstlied Rebecca-Jane Lea (soprano) Louise Ashcroft (mezzo-soprano) Ensemble 10/10 conducted by Clark Rundell Recorded at The Cornerstone, Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus, in November 2011. Ensemble 10/10 marks Gary Carpenter's 60th birthday. Plus Hear and Now 50: Takemitsu. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gavin Bryars, Thierry Pecou, Francois Narboni | 20120901 | Ivan Hewett introduces works by Gavin Bryars, Thierry Pecou and Francois Narboni recorded at a concert last May in King's Place, London, by Percussions Claviers de Lyon. And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now 50 Robert Worby advocates V of IV, an early electronic work by American pioneer Pauline Oliveros, with commentary from author and journalist Rob Young. Gavin Bryars: At Portage and Main Thierry Pecou: L'Arbre aux fleurs Francois Narboni: Rigodon (recorded at King's Place, London, on 14 May 2012) Hugues Dufourt: Hommage a Charles Negre Guildhall New Music Ensemble, conducted by Pierre-Andre Valade. French music from Percussions Claviers de Lyon, and Pauline Oliveros in Hear and Now 50. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gemini Plays Two Generations | 20071117 | Robert Worby introduces music from Gemini's weekend festival held last summer in London, combining pieces by old friends of the group, with newly commissioned music by young composers. Sarah Leonard (soprano) Alison Wells (mezzo-soprano) John White and Roger Hamilton (conductors) John White: Symphonies 3 and 4 Charlotte Bray: Dos poemas de amor Nicola LeFanu: Songs without Words Nadja Gabriela Plein: Three Moons David Lumsdaine: A Tree Telling of Orpheus. Robert Worby introduces music from Gemini's festival held last summer in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Georg Friedrich Haas | 20140920 | Robert Worby presents a focus on the music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas, with performances recorded earlier this year. Haas is a leading exponent of spectral music, whose use of micropolyphony, microintervals and overtones follows in the tradition of Ligeti. In Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the home of Claudia Molitor on the Sussex coast. Haas - Introduktion und Transsonation Klangforum Wien Ilan Volkov (conductor) Haas - Saxophone Concerto Marcus Weiss (saxophone) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Haas - String Quartet No.2 Arditti Quartet. Robert Worby presents a focus on the music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Georg Friedrich Haas | 20190309 | Robert Worby presents the UK premiere of Solstices by the Austrian spectral composer Georg Friedrich Haas, in a performance by the Riot Ensemble recorded at the Royal Academy of Music in London in January. The group's artistic director Aaron Holloway-Nahum reflects on the challenges facing his musicians in playing this long-form piece from memory and, as the score dictates, in total darkness. Our Sound of the Week tonight comes from Icelandic composer Pကll Ragnar Pကlsson exploring the qualities of electric guitar feedback, and we end with spectral music of the electronic kind from Jean-Claude Risset, his work Songes, composed 40 years ago in 1979. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions. | |
George Benjamin | 20100213 | Tom Service presents a 50th birthday celebration for George Benjamin, one of the UK's finest musicians, recorded at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall last weekend. In a concert showcasing his talents as composer, conductor, coach, performer and collaborator he will direct works including Palimpsests, and play the solo piece Piano Figures. Watch 'Viola, Viola' (link below) George Benjamin: Piano Figures George Benjamin: Viola Viola George Benjamin: At First Light George Benjamin: A Mind of Winter George Benjamin: Palilmpsests Claire Booth soprano Paul Silverthorne viola Eniko Magyar viola Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble London Sinfonietta George Benjamin (conductor/piano) Written for London Sinfonietta, At First Light is a classic illustration of Benjamin's dazzling sonic landscapes. The world of Turner's painting 'Norham Castle, Sunrise' is stunningly evoked through musical colours, textures and inventive harmonies. A Mind of Winter illustrates a different side to Benjamin's musical flair, of setting voice with orchestral ensemble, as the soprano blends with the crystalline world of Wallace Stevens' poem The Snow Man. This performance of A Mind of Winter also highlights Benjamin's skills as a distinguished coach. The next generation of performers from the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble will take their place on stage alongside London Sinfonietta. The concert ends with the explosive orchestral Palimpsests, a gripping and dynamic work fusing violent brass against translucent wind and strings. Tom Service interviews composer George Benjamin and introduces a concert of his music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
George Crumb | 20091226 | Tom Service talks to American composer George Crumb in his eightieth birthday year. Including music recorded in December 2009 at the Barbican's Total Immersion: George Crumb festival. George Crumb: Haunted Landscape (17:04) BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins (conductor) George Crumb: Makrokosmos Volume 1 (12 fantasy pieces after the Zodiac for amplified piano) (27:43) Joanna McGregor (piano) George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (22:31) Louis Watkins (soprano) Anna Patalong (mezzo-soprano) Guildhall New Music Ensemble Richard Baker (conductor). Tom Service talks to and introduces music by American composer George Crumb. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gerald Barry, Alice's Adventures Under Ground | 20170114 | Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the eagerly awaited European premiere of Gerald Barry's latest opera. Tom McKinney talks to Gerald Barry about his latest work prior to its European premiere at London's Barbican Centre at the end of November. Inspired by Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice's Adventures Under Ground is a burlesque with the darkest of undertones: a game of croquet is conflated with 19th-century piano exercises, punctuated by the sounds of a guillotine, and a tune is stolen from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. All are brought together in a madcap celebration of the furthest reaches of both language and music. Before Alice, there's a chance to hear Gerald Barry's earliest operatic experiment in a first broadcast of a take on La Traviata which he made for Irish Radio in 1980. Gerald Barry: La Traviata for Actors and Megaphones Peig Monahan, S退amus Forde, Gerald Barry (actors) rec. 1980 Gerald Barry: Alice's Adventures Under Ground (European premiere) Barbara Hannigan - Alice Allison Cook - Red Queen, Queen of Hearts, Duchess, Mock Turtle Hilary Summers - White Queen, Dormouse, Tiger Lily, Mock Turtle, Cook Allan Clayton -: White King, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Tweedledum, Frog Footman, Fawn Peter Tantsits - March Hare, Tweedledee, Mock Turtle, Fish Footman Mark Stone - White Knight, Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle, Soldier Joshua Bloom - Humpty Dumpty, King of Hearts, Red Knight, Mock Turtle Britten Sinfonia Thomas Ad耀s conductor. The European premiere of Gerald Barry's opera Alice's Adventures under Ground. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gerald Barry, Mark Simpson | 20150711 | Ivan Hewett presents recent recordings by the BBC Philharmonic, including the world premiere of Mark Simpson's occult-inspired oratorio The Immortal, performed at the Manchester International Festival last week. The work explores the obsession with death that lies at the heart of the human experience and is inspired by John Gray's book, The Immortalization Commission. We hear a concert of works by the Irish composer Gerald Barry, a musical maverick whose witty compositions both surprise and delight. And in Modern Muses, Harrison Birtwistle and bass John Tomlinson talk about the creation of Tomlinson's roles in Birtwistle's landmark operas, 'Gawain' and 'The Minotaur'. Gerald Barry: La jalousie taciturne; Wiener Blut; Kitty Lie Over Across From the Wall; Day; From The Intelligence Park Nicolas Hodges (piano) Clark Rundell (conductor) Recorded at MediaCityUK, Salford, in January Mark Simpson: The Immortal (world premiere) Mark Stone (baritone) EXAUDI Manchester Chamber Choir Juanjo Mena (conductor) Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, last week. Ivan Hewett presents music by Mark Simpson and Gerald Barry played by the BBC Philharmonic Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
German Music | 20110219 | Ivan Hewett presents a German programme, which features piano music from the 1980s and two more recent orchestral pieces, including a world premiere. With contributions from German music specialist Jean Martin and composer Torsten Rasch. Wolfgang Rihm: Brahmsliebewalzer Edward Pick (piano) Benjamin Schweitzer: Lichtspielszene BBC Symphony Orchestra Andr退 de Ridder (conductor) Barbara Heller: Anschlüsse Torsten Rasch: Le Serpent Rouge (BBC Commission - wp) Yeree Suh (soprano) Andr退 de Ridder (conductor). Ivan Hewett focuses on German music, including Benjamin Schweitzer and Torsten Rasch. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gf Haas's In Vain | 20140118 | Tom Service presents two masterworks of the last quarter century performed recently at the Sounth Bank Centre's The Rest is Noise Festival. Ligeti's Violin Concerto has taken its place as a classic of the late twentieth century whilst Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain is, according to Sir Simon Rattle: "A staggering experience and one of the first great masterpieces of the twenty-first century." Tom talks to the Austrian composer about this colourful, emotively charged score which was receiving here its eagerly anticipated London premiere in front of a capacity audience at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Georg Friedrich Haas: in vain London Sinfonietta, Emilio Pomarico (conductor) Ligeti: Violin Concerto Ilya Gringolts (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor). London Sinfonietta in GF Haas's in vain and the BBC SSO in Ligeti's Violin Concerto. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Gloria Coates | 20190112 | Kate Molleson presents three symphonies by American composer Gloria Coates performed by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Born on the 10th October 1938 in Wisconsin, but resident in Germany since 1969, Gloria Coates is a leading figure in American contemporary music and has been instrumental in bringing American concert music to Europe. At the age of nine she began experimenting with tone clusters and glissandos, techniques that have characterised her music ever since. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, her oeuvre includes chamber works, song, electronic musique concrete and a total of sixteen symphonies (the highest number of symphonies ever written by a woman composer) leading her to be described as 'the greatest woman symphonist'. In this concert Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform the UK premiere of Gloria Coates' first symphony 'Music on Open Strings', a work that caused a sensation when premiered at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1978, and has each section of the orchestra tuned to an unconventional set of pitches. The UK premiere of 'Symphony No.7', dedicated to those who brought down the Berlin wall 'in PEACE', and the World Premiere of 'Symphony No.11'. Also in tonight's show we have two pieces by Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino recorded at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2018. Kate Molleson presents three symphonies by American composer Gloria Coates. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Goehr, Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies | 20130810 | Ivan Hewett is joined in he studio by writer and broadcaster Paul Griffiths to introduce one of the most celebrated British compositions of the 1960s, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King, in a performance given last month at the Buxton Festival by baritone Kelvin Thomas and the Music Theatre Wales Ensemble, conducted by Michael Rafferty. The programme also includes two other important British works from the '60s, Alexander Goehr's Pastorals (performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Tragoedia (performed by the Melos Ensemble). Works by Goehr and Birtwistle, and Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Goehr, Ferneyhough, Christopher Fox | 20130223 | Ivan Hewett introduces the world premiere of Alexander Goehr's To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching and talks to the composer. Plus Prometheus by Brian Ferneyhough (70 this year) and, to mark Tate Britain's 'Schwitters in Britain' exhibition, Three Constructions after Kurt Schwitters by Christopher Fox, originally composed for Radio 3's Between the Ears in 1993. Brian Ferneyhough: Prometheus Northern Sinfonia Wind Alexander Goehr: To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching BCMG Sound Investment commission (world premiere) Christopher Gillett (tenor) Members of CBSO Youth Chorus Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Oliver Knussen (conductor) Three Constructions after Kurt Schwitters. An Alexander Goehr premiere, plus works by Brian Ferneyhough and Christopher Fox. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Goehr, Maxwell Davies, Vivier | 20120623 | Tom Service introduces Alexander Goehr's Clarinet Quintet and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's The Last Island performed by the Nash Ensemble, and in this week's instalment of the Hear and Now 50, soprano Barbara Hannigan celebrates Claude Vivier's profoundly moving work for soprano and orchestra, Lonely Child. Vivier conceived the piece as one single melody, with the entire orchestra transformed into a timbre, to create great beams of colour. Writer Paul Griffiths puts the piece in context, noting the influence of Stockhausen but stressing the unique soundworld of Vivier. FULL PROGRAMME Alexander Goehr: Clarinet Quintet Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: The Last Island Lionel Friend (conductor) Claude Vivier: Lonely Child Marie-Danielle Parent (soprano) Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal Serge Garant (conductor). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents works by Goehr and Maxwell Davies. Plus Vivier's Lonely Child. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Goehr: Promised End | 20101218 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Alexander Goehr's new opera Promised End, in a production by James Conway, recorded at the Linbury Theatre in Covent Garden, London. A meditation on Shakespeare's King Lear, presented by English Touring Opera, the production features Roderick Earle as Lear, Nigel Robson as Gloucester and Lina Markeby as Cordelia, with contemporary ensemble Aurora conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. The text for the opera is selected, distilled and re-arranged from Shakespeare's King Lear by the composer and the late Shakespeare scholar Sir Frank Kermode who passed away earlier this year. It emphasises one aspect of the great play: King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, men who in their prime committed errors of judgment, bringing upon themselves their own tragic destinies. by Alexander Goehr Lear (King of Britain) - Roderick Earle Goneril (Lear's eldest daughter) - Jacqueline Varsey Regan (Lear's second daughter) - Julia Sporsen Cordelia/Fool (Lear's youngest daughter/fool) - Lina Markeby Earl of Gloucester (Lear's vassal) - Nigel Robson Edgar (Gloucester's son) - Adrian Dwyer Edmund (Gloucester's bastard) - Nicholas Garrett Knight/Servant (Lear's retainer) - Jeffrey Stewart Servant/Captain - Adam Tunnicliffe Aurora Orchestra Ryan Wigglesworth - Conductor James Conway - Director. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Alexander Goehr's new opera Promised End. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Graham Fitkin Band | 20100410 | Zoe Martlew introduces a recording of the Graham Fitkin Band, live at Kings Place in London last February, and interviews the composer during the interval. Totti (7:17) MFV (5:16) Danse Real (5:07) Compress (3:43) Touching Seen (8:15) Mistaken Identity (4:40) (Interval) Soft Wac (3:00) Torn Edge (8:39) The Cone Gatherers (9:37) Close Hold (6:54) Vamp (4:25) Loudish (1:03) Zoe Martlew introduces the Graham Fitkin Band in concert at Kings Place in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques | 20090214 | Tom Service presents a concert given at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, featuring the first complete UK performance of French composer Gerard Grisey's Les espaces acoustiques, a cycle of six works written between 1974 and 1985. Described by the composer as a 'great laboratory', the works explore the very essence of sound itself. Including conversation with composer Julian Anderson and writer Paul Griffiths. Paul Silverthorne (viola) London Sinfonietta Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble George Benjamin (conductor) Gerard Grisey: Les espaces acoustiques. Tom Service presents a complete performance of Gerard Grisey's Les espaces acoustiques. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hannah Kendall's New Opera The Knife Of Dawn | 20161022 | Tom Service presents the world premiere of Hannah Kendall's opera The Knife of Dawn, recorded earlier this month at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. Plus music by Daniel Kidane, Samantha Fernando and Shiva Feshareki. Part of Radio 3's ongoing celebration of composers from the UK's black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, in conjunction with this week's Diversity and Inclusion in Composition conference at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where Daniel Kidane was among the guest speakers. The Knife of Dawn explores the life and mind of Guyanese poet and political activist Martin Carter as he fights for his country's independence from Britain. It's set in 1953, when Carter was imprisoned for 'spreading dissension'. In this, her operatic debut, Hannah Kendall sets five of Carter's own poems, 'In a Great Silence'; 'Listening to the Land'; 'This is the Dark Time My Love'; 'The Knife of Dawn' and 'Not Hands Like Mine', which have been drawn into a moving new libretto by Tessa McWatt. Tom Service presents the world premiere of Hannah Kendall's new opera The Knife of Dawn. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hans Abrahamsen | 20150228 | Presented by Robert Worby Recorded at Glasgow's City Halls, Andre de Ridder conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their invited guests, the Danish String Quartet, in works by the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. The concert features the Danish String Quartet, currently members of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme, in Abrahamen's First String Quartet, 10 Preludes, written in 1973 and featuring the full range of human expression, from violence to peaceful resolution, as well as his beautifully crafted 2010 orchestral re-working of the same piece, Ten Sinfonias. In between, a performance of his poignant Double Concerto with the violinist Baiba Skride and her sister, the pianist Lauma Skride, for whom the piece was written. Also in the programme, the next in a series of pieces commissioned from previous winners of the BBC Proms Inspire Competition, performed by members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This week, a piece for clarinet and ensemble by Thomas Gibbs, who won the senior category in 2013. Abrahamsen: String Quartet No.1 Abrahamsen: Double Concerto (UK Premiere) Baiba Skride (violin) Lauma Skride (piano) Andre de Ridder (conductor) Gibbs: Verwandlung (World Premiere) Abrahamsen: Ten Sinfonias (UK Premiere) Andre de Ridder (conductor). The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performs music by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hans Werner Henze | 20140329 | Recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale studios in February, a concert celebrating the music of the late Hans Werner Henze, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen. The programme includes one of the German composer's very last works, Ouverture zu einem Theater, his poetry-inspired Liebeslieder featuring cellist Anssi Karttunen as soloist, his orchestral fantasy Los Caprichos, named after Goya's etchings of the same name, and a set of pieces for two pianos by four younger composers, written in tribute to Henze on the occasion of his 75th birthday in 2001. Presented by Tom Service in conversation with Oliver Knussen. Hans Werner Henze: Lucy Escott Variations Jan Philip Schulze (piano) Hans Werner Henze: Los Caprichos Mark-Anthony Turnage: Two Portraits Kenneth Hesketh: Netsuke Fragments Detlev Glanert: Enigmatic Landscape Robert Zuidam: Music for Two Pianos Richard Utley, Huw Watkins (pianos) Hans Werner Henze: Liebeslieder Anssi Karttunen (cello) Hans Werner Henze: Overture zu einem Theater Oliver Knussen (conductor). A concert in celebration of the music of German composer Hans Werner Henze. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hansel And Gretel | 20181222 | A re-imagining of the classic fairy tale by the poet Simon Armitage with music by Matthew Kaner, a work devised for the stage by the Goldfield Ensemble. This touring production was inspired by the visual creations of artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, with puppeteers working alongside the chamber ensemble and narrator Adey Grummet. Kate Molleson introduces a recording of the London performance which took place at Milton Court Concert Hall in October. Also tonight, a selection of some of the best new releases of 2018. Simon Armitage's re-imagining of the classic fairy tale with music by Matthew Kaner Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Harrison Birtwistle | 20120609 | Tom Service, in conversation with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, presents this Birtwistle Portrait concert, specially recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the London Sinfonietta conducted by David Atherton Harrison Birtwistle: Cortege Harrison Birtwistle: Five Distances for 5 Instruments Harrison Birtwistle: Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum David Atherton, conductor Harrison Birtwistle: In Broken Images (UK premiere) And in the Hear and Now 50, composer, writer and Russophile Gerard McBurney nominates the austere and uncompormising Octet by Galina Ustvolskaya, which changed his ideas of twentieth-century Russian music. And Gillian Moore, Head of Classical Music at the Souhtbank Centre puts the work into the context of the mid-twentieth century Soviet Union. Galina Unstvolskaya: Octet Lyn Fletcher, Susie Meszaros, Christopher Tombling, Maya Iwabuchi (violins) Sue Bohling and Margaret Tindale (oboes) William Stephenson (piano) Graham Cole (timpani). Harrison Birtwistle: Cortege, Five Distances, Carmen Arcadiae. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Harrison Birtwistle | 20140719 | Tom Service introduces an 80th birthday concert for Sir Harrison Birtwistle. Oliver Knussen conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in an all-Birtwistle programme, including early works Tragoedia, Cantata and Silbury Air, plus Four Poems by Jaan Kaplinski and the more recent Fantasia upon all the Notes. And Sara Mohr-Pietsch continues her Composers' Rooms series with a visit to the London home of Mark-Anthony Turnage. Harrison Birtwistle: Cantata * Fantasia on all the notes 4 Poems by Jaan Kaplinski * Katrine Baerts (soprano) * Oliver Knussen (conductor). Tom Service presents a celebration of the 80th birthday of Harrison Birtwistle. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Harrison Birtwistle Celebration | 20100605 | Tom Service celebrates the forty-five year career of one of Britain's most distinguished composers, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, in a concert recorded at the Wigmore Hall in March. Plus a UK premiere from centenarian, Elliott Carter Birtwistle: Five Distances for Five Instruments Birtwistle: Oboe Quartet Birtwistle: Duets for Storab Carter: Poems of Louis Zukofsky (UK premi耀re) Birtwistle: Tragoedia Nash Ensemble Claire Booth (soprano) Lionel Friend (conductor). Tom Service celebrates the composing career of Harrison Birtwistle. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hcmf 2-5, The Riot Ensemble And Nikel | 20171125 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby live at the Blending Shed in Huddersfield, introduce an eclectic mix of new music performed on multiple performance spaces - as part of the closing weekend of this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Tribute is paid to the late Pauline Oliveros and includes her rarely heard 'The Wheel of Time', performed by The Riot Ensemble. The programme also features music from the Austrian group Nikel and improvisations for guitar and trombone by duo, Archer Spade. Pauline Oliveros: The Autobiography of Lady Steinway; The Wheel of Time (UK Premiere) The Riot Ensemble conducted by Arron Hollway-Nahum Enno Poppe: Fleisch (UK Premiere) Ann Cleare: the square of yellow light that is your window (UK Premiere) Nikel: Yaron Deustche (electric guitar) Patrick Stadler (saxophones) Brian Archinal (percussion) Antoine Francoise (piano) Alfred Reiter (sound engineer) Lauren Sarah Hayes: Mini Savior Opt. (World Premiere) Lauren Sarah Hayes (hybrid analogue and digital live electronics) Archer Spade: Improvisation Nick Millevoi (guitar) Dan Blacksberg (trombone). Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby are live from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Hcmf40 | 20171118 | Sara Mohr-Piestch and Robert Worby are live from Bates Mill Blending Shed in Huddersfield for the first in a series of programmes from this year's 40th anniversary Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The programme features music from the arch-experimentalist ensemble zeitkratzer and their tribute to the iconic German band Kraftwerk, with live performances of numbers from their critically acclaimed albums "Kraftwerk" and "Kraftwerk 2". Also on the programme, a premiere of music by James Dillon from the Scotland-based Red Note Ensemble and the latest news of highlights from this year's festival. Kraftwerk: Ruckzuck; Spule 4; Strom; Atem; Klingklang; Megaherz Performed by zeitkratzer: Frank Gratkowski, flute/clarinets Elena Kakaliagou, french horn Hilary Jeffery, trombone Reinhold Friedl, harmonium/piano Didier Ascour, guitar Maurice de Martin, drums Lisa Marie Landgraf, violin Burkhard Schlothauer, violin Elisabeth Coudoux, cello Ulrich Phillipp, double bass James Dillon: Tanz/haus: triptych 2017 (World Premiere) Performed by the Red Note Ensemble: Jacqueline Shave, violin Robert Irvine, cello Stephen Gutman, piano Ruth Morley, flute Tim Lines, clarinet Nikita Naumov, double bass Tom Hunter, percussion Ida Løvli Hidle, accordion Geoffrey Paterson, conductor. Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby present live from the 2017 Huddersfield Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Heiner Goebbels, Alexander Goehr | 20130216 | Robert Worby introduces a recording of Heiner Goebbels' Walden, inspired by the American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau's account of his two year woodland retreat in a cabin near to Walden Pond in Massachusetts. This is a new version of the work created for Ensemble Klang and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with Keir Neuringer as the narrator. Plus Alexander Goehr's Duos, for two violins, performed by members of the BCMG. Alexander Goehr: Duos Heiner Goebbels: Walden Ensemble Klang; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Keir Neuringer (narrator). Birmingham Contemporary Music Group perform works by Heiner Goebbels and Alexander Goehr. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Helmut Lachenmann | 20120630 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces Helmut Lachenmann's Zwei Gefuhle and Accanto in performances by Ensemble Modern at this month's Aldeburgh Festival, and in the Hear and Now 50 writer Paul Griffiths is the advocate for Hans Abrahamsen's Winternacht, with further support from Gillian Moore. FULL PROGRAMME Lachenmann: Zwei Gefuhle Lachenmann: Accanto Franck Ollu (conductor) Hans Abrahamsen: Winternacht London Sinfonietta Oliver Knussen (conductor). Music by Helmut Lachenmann. Plus the Hear and Now 50: Hans Abrahamsen's Winternacht. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Helmut Lachenmann Tribute | 20101030 | Tom Service introduces performances of two orchestral works by Helmut Lachenmann, given last weekend in London at Southbank Centre's celebration of the composer's 75th birthday. Lachenmann: Schreiben (23:02) Lachenmann : Ausklang for piano & orchestra (50:42) London Sinfonietta Brad Lubman (conductor) Rolf Hind (piano) Tom Service introduces two orchestral works by German composer Helmut Lachenmann. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Henning Christiansen, Else Marie Pade And Per Norgard | 20170708 | Kate Molleson presents music by three Danish composers. Apartment House perform Anton Lukoszevieze's live realisation of Henning Christiansen's Requiem of Art in a Kammer Klang event at Caf退 Oto in east London, and Jacob Kirkegaard presents the Faust Suite by pioneering electronic composer Else Marie Pade. Plus a new recording from Salford of the First Cello Concerto, 'Between', by Per Norgard, who will be 85 on Thursday; Norgard's family friend Jacob Kullberg is the soloist with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Michael Francis. Photo (c) Dimitri Djuric. Music by three Danish composers: Henning Christiansen, Else Marie Pade and Per Norgard. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
House Of Bedlam | 20090411 | Robert Worby explores the spoken word in new music and sound art, with a concert which brings together a poet with musicians. Larry Goves: sinew Matthew Sergeant: this was not a film about a drowning man (world premiere) Larry Goves/Matthew Welton: Poppy Larry Goves: deaf John's dark house Ian Vine: X Larry Goves: riviniana and the vermilion border Matthew Welton: Writing 21 Simon Holt: brief candles Goves: talking microtonal blues Performed by the ensemble 'house of bedlam' and poet Matthew Welton (recorded at a Cutting Edge concert in the Warehouse, London) Plus Anne-Hilde Neset reviewing the book Playing With Words: the spoken word in artistic practice. Robert Worby explores the spoken word in new music and sound art. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Howard Skempton | 20100424 | Ivan Hewett talks to to British composer Howard Skempton and introduces a concert of his works including the world premiere of a new piece for viola and chamber ensemble. Howard Skempton: Only the Sound Remains for viola and chamber ensemble (world premiere); Roundels of the Year for choir; Two Cello Interludes; The Voice of the Spirits for choir; Two Guitar Interludes; Rise Up, my Love for choir Charlie Usher: Slow Pan for piano and chamber ensemble Christopher Yates (viola); Ulrich Heinen (cello); James Woodrow (guitar); Malcolm Wilson (piano) EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble Birmingham Contemporary Music Group James Weeks (conductor) Recorded at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, last February. New music by Howard Skempton performed by the BCMG and EXAUDI. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Howard Skempton | 20141004 | Presented by Robert Worby in conversation with the composer Howard Skempton This edition of Hear and Now features music by Howard Skempton in recent recordings from the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Clark Rundell, including the song cycle The Moon is Flashing featuring tenor James Gilchrist, and from the new-music ensemble Psappha. Howard Skempton is also the subject of this week's Composers' Rooms with Sara Mohr-Pietsch, as she talks with him in his workspace at his home in the West Midlands. And the cellist Anton Lukoszevieze plays music for multi-tracked cellos by the Lithuanian experimental composer Joseph Kudirka. Howard Skempton: The Light Fantastic; Lento; The Moon is Flashing* James Gilchrist (tenor)* BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Clark Rundell (conductor) Gleams and Fragments; Gemini Dances; Winter Sunrise Joseph Kudirka: Wyoming Snow Anton Lukoszevieze (cello). Robert Worby presents recordings of music by Howard Skempton. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival | 20181201 | Robert Worby and Tom McKinney present highlights from last month's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including a focus on the festival's Composer in Residence, Christian Marclay, and music by senior Italian Modernist Salvatore Sciarrino. Aaron Strootman: Shambling emerge Kluster5 Sciarrino: Quartetto no.7 Arditti Quartet Christian Marclay: To be continued UKP Ensemble Babel Anna Meredith: Songs for the M8 United Instruments of Lucilin Sciarrino: Il sogno di Stradella UKP Divertimento Ensemble Hanna Hartman: THE BOILER ROOM UKP Mimitabu Robert Worby and Tom McKinney present music from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2009 | 20091128 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch reports from the 2009 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the UK's largest, and presents highlights of a concert given earlier by the London Sinfonietta celebrating two composer anniversaries. Richard Barrett's fiftieth year is commemorated with the world premiere of his new work Mesopotamia; and Jonathan Harvey - composer in residence at this year's festival - has his seventieth year marked with a performance of Bhakti, his reflective and spiritual exploration of Sanskrit hymns widely recognised as one of the most influential works of the 1980s. Sara Mohr-Pietsch with highlights from 2009's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2011, Richard Barrett | 20111119 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a live show from Huddersfield Town Hall as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2011. The programme features the world premiere of a major new work by Richard Barrett - Construction - a two-hour piece which explores ideas about urban living, both through promised utopias and harsh realities. The performers are ELISION with vocalists Deborah Kayser, Ute Wassermann and Carl Rosman, conducted by Eugene Ughetti. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a new work by Richard Barrett, performed at the HCMF 2011. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2017 | 20171202 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby present a programme of highlights from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2017, which were recorded in various locations around the city during November. Tonight's programme includes the UK premiere of Brian Ferneyhough's Umbrations, a large-scale work played by the joint forces of Ensemble Modern and the Arditti Quartet, which is based on the well-known In Nomine plainchant. Plus the UK premiere of two works by the young Swiss composer, Stephanie Haensler, performed by Red Note Ensemble. and a rare performance in the UK given by the Vienna-based group Polwechsel, which is reunited with saxophonist and former member John Butcher for the world premiere of Small Worlds by the Austrian composer Werner Dafeldecker. Ganz nah (UK premiere) Romaine Bolinger (violin) Lora-Evelin Vakova-Tarara (piano) Small Worlds (world premiere) John Butcher (saxophone) Klaus Lang (organ) Umbrations (UK premiere) Ensemble Modern & Arditti Quartet Brad Lubman (conductor) Improvisation Im Begriffe (UK premiere) Geoffrey Paterson (conductor). Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby present highlights from Huddersfield 2017. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2018 | 20181208 | Robert Worby and Tom McKinney present highlights from the 2018 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including Eliane Radigue's Occam Delta XV performed by the Bozzini Quartet. The Arditti Quartet give the world premiere of James Dillon's 9th String Quartet, and there's music by young Swedish composers performed by Mimitabu, as well as a visit to a sound installation by Christopher Fox. Johann Svensson: Amperian Loops III James Dillon: String Quartet no.9 (WP) Sara Glojnaric: sugarcoating #2 Eliane Radigue: Occam Delta XV (UKP) Joachim Sandgren: Corps Etrangers Christian Marclay: Fade To Slide Ensemble Babel Photograph: ensemBle baBel performing at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2018 © Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, taken by Graham Hardy Robert Worby and Tom McKinney with music from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2018 4-4 | 20181215 | The premiere of a major piece by Rebecca Saunders inspired by the final chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses and performed by soprano Juliet Fraser with Ensemble MusikFabrik features in this last programme of dedicated coverage from the 2018 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Plus a report on a performance of Samuel Beckett's miniature music drama Quad, in a production by Sophie Fetokaki Programme: Nick Morrish Rarity: Life of lines II United Instruments of Lucilin Clara Ianotta: Dead wasps in a Jam-jar III Arditti Quartet Rebecca Saunders: Yes (UKP) Juliet Fraser (soprano) Musikfabrik conducted by Enno Poppe Robert Worby and Tom McKinney with further highlights from Huddersfield Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble Modern, Polish Radio Choir | 20171209 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby present more highlights from last month's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Christopher Trapani: PolyCHROME Ensemble Modern conducted by Brad Lubman Enno Poppe: Gel怀schte Lieder Explore Ensemble Carola Bauckholt: Laufwerk Dai Fujikura: Zawazawa Dai Fujikura: Sawasawa Ria Ideta (marimba) Polish Radio Choir conducted by Maria Piotrowksa-Bogalecka Christian Weber & Joke Lanz: Improvisation Christian Weber (double bass) Joke Lanz (turntables). Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival highlights presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Explore Ensemble, Ensemble Phace, Polwechsel | 20171216 | Highlights from last month's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby. Bernhard Lang: DW24 Bowler: FFF Ensemble PHACE Daverson: Elusive Tangibility II Romitelli: La Sabbia del tempo Explore Ensemble Klaus Lang: Tehran dust; Improvisations Polwechsel & Klaus Lang (organ). Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby present highlights from HCMF. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Huw Watkins | 20160709 | Tom Service talks to composer-performer Huw Watkins ahead of his fortieth birthday as they listen to a wide-ranging programme of his chamber and orchestral music from the last decade, recorded at a portrait concert earlier this year. Plus, in Modern Muses, Krzysztof Penderecki and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter discuss a 30-year musical and personal friendship which, among other works, has generated Penderecki's Violin Concerto No. 2 'Metamorphosen'. Huw Watkins: Anthem BBC National Orchestra of Wales Garry Walker (conductor) Speak Seven Seas Robert Plane (clarinet) Philip Dukes (viola) Huw Watkins (piano) Remember Ruby Hughes (soprano) Modern Muses: Krzysztof Penderecki and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter 3 Welsh Songs Partita Lesley Hatfield (violin) Double Concerto Josephine Knight (cello) Garry Walker (conductor). Composer Huw Watkins talks to Tom Service about his chamber and orchestral music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ian Pace, Contemporary Virtuoso Pianist | 20181006 | A celebration of Ian Pace at 50, a virtuoso pianist who specialises in contemporary music, who has premiered many works by leading composers of our time. This programme includes music that Ian has specially recorded for this broadcast, as well as CD and archive recordings. He joins presenter Robert Worby to discuss the music and his ongoing thoughts about performance practice. Elliott Carter: 90+ Karlheinz Stockhausen: Klavierstuck X Rebecca Saunders: Mirror, mirror, on the wall Pascal Dusapin: A Quia Orchestre De Paris, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach Michael Finnissy: Alkan-Paganini Brian Ferneyhough: Quirl plus, short works written specially for Ian's 50th by Michael Spencer, Evan Johnson, Patricia Sucena de Almeida, Wieland Hoban and Paul Obermayer. Ian Pace (piano) Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Iceland Dark Music Days | 20180203 | Tom Service reports from the Iceland Dark Music Days and introduces a concert of new orchestral music. Sebastian Fagerlund: Drifts Pကll Ragnar Pကlsson: Quake, for cello and chamber ensemble Haukur T masson: Piano Concerto No 2 Magnús Bl怀ndal J hannsson: Adagio Haukur T masson: In the Seventh Heaven S怀unn Thorsteinsd ttir (cello) V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson (piano) Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dan퀀el Bjarnason. Also from the festival, Riot Ensemble premiere Bကra G퀀slad ttir's Seven heavens and combined forces from Poland and Iceland play Finnur Karlsson's new composition named after a Green Karlstad sofa. And Trio Hl怀kk essay their haunting 'hidden one', light harp. Photo by Odd Stefan. Tom Service reports from Iceland's Dark Music Days with a concert of new orchestral music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Inspired, By Debussy, Tristan Murail, Linda Catlin Smith | 20180324 | Kate Molleson marks the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death this weekend with a programme of contemporary music by composers inspired by Debussy, and talks to composers Tristan Murail and Linda Catlin Smith. Boulez: D退rive 1 Tristan Murail: Treize couleurs du soleil couchant; Feuilles | |
International Rostrum Of Composers | 20180421 | From the International Rostrum of Composers 2017, an international array of some of the best new music for orchestra and ensemble, including Artur Zagajewski: brut Arte Dei Suonatori Dominik Po?o?ski (cello) Sebastian Hilli: Reachings Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andr退 de Ridder Kate Moore: Fern Slagwerkgroep Den Haag and Amsterdam Sinfonietta. From the International Rostrum of Composers 2017, new music for orchestra and ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ivan Hewett Presents World Premieres From The Witten Days For New Chamber Music 2016 | 20160813 | Ivan Hewett presents highlights - including five world premieres - from the Witten Days for New Chamber Music 2016, in conversation with Harry Vogt, director of the festival since 1990. Alongside music by the featured composer at Witten this year, Gerard Pesson, we'll hear premieres from Hugues Dufourt, Juliana Hodkinson, Mikel Urquiza and, to end the programme, Enno Poppe - the Diotima Quartet performing Poppe's very first string quartet, which has the gnomic title Buch (Book). Image (c) Claus Langer/WDR. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
James Dillon Birthday Concert | 20100501 | The 60th birthday of one of Scotland's most important composers, James Dillon, is celebrated in this concert, specially recorded at City Halls, Glasgow and presented by Ivan Hewett. Claude Viver: Orion Elliott Carter: Adagio tenebroso James Dillon: Siorram Scott Dickinson (viola) James Dillon: Via Sacra BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Ivan Hewett presents orchestral music by Claude Vivier, Elliott Carter and James Dillon. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
James Dillon, Hector Parra, Morton Feldman, 2014 Huddersfield Festival | 20150124 | Presented by Robert Worby, featuring music by James Dillon, including a World Premiere of his new work Physis, and works by Hector Parra and Morton Feldman, all recorded at the 2014 Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music. Plus the Arditti Quartet play Brian Ferneyhough's 3rd String Quartet, and in Composers' Rooms Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the Berlin home of the young German composer Tom Rojo Poller. James Dillon: Andromeda Noriko Kawai (piano); BBC SSO; Steve Schick (conductor) Hector Parra: L'absencia (UK Premiere recording) James Dillon: Physis (World Premiere recording) Brian Ferneyhough: String Quartet No 3 Morton Feldman: Piano Four Hands John Tilbury, Philip Thomas (piano). Robert Worby presents music by James Dillon, Hector Parra and Morton Feldman. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
James Dillon-jonathan Harvey | 20100130 | Robert Worby introduces new music for violin and for string quartet, in conversation with virtuoso violinist Irvine Arditti of the Arditti Quartet. The string quartet is often said to be one of the most challenging mediums to write for, and anyone attempting it today is standing on the shoulders of giants, going back to Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. But James Dillon and Jonathan Harvey can certainly claim authority in this medium, each of them having written several substantial string quartets, and their latest quartets are featured in this programme, with Dillon's new quartet recorded here in its very first performance, from the 2009 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Harvey's fourth quartet, recorded at the same event, extends the medium with a virtuosic electronic part, transforming the string sounds and projecting them to all corners of the concert hall. As the composer describes it, "All sorts of psychic metamorphoses are undergone by the string sound; it seems to enter into spaces like the centre of the earth..." The programme also includes Harvey's Scena for violin and orchestra, in which the solo violin takes on a dramatic role like an operatic singer; and Hilda Paredes' violin solo in memory of another violinist, Thomas Kakuska. Hilda Paredes: In Memoriam Thomas Kakuska Irvine Arditti (violin) James Dillon: String Quartet no.5 (World Premiere) Jonathan Harvey: Scena Elizabeth Layton (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Jonathan Harvey: String Quartet no.4 New music by James Dillon and Jonathan Harvey played by the Arditti Quartet. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
James Dillon's Nine Rivers | 20101211 | In this very special edition of Hear and Now celebrating the 60th birthday of influential Scottish composer James Dillon, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Steven Schick and BBC Singers perform the world premiere of James Dillon's seminal cycle, Nine Rivers. Conducted by Jessica Cottis, Simon Joly, and Steven Schick, with sound projection by Carl Faia, Ian Dearden and William Brent, and video projection by Ross Karre. It is scored for a mix of forces and electronics, and lasts over 3 hours. It was written between 1982 and 1999 and the cycle of nine works draw on a web of many different influences and connections to form an ever-changing flow of musical consciousness. It is divided into three parts, and performed in the City Halls in Glasgow; Part One in the Grand Hall, Part Two for solo percussion, in the Fruit Market, and Part Three in the Grand Hall again. The nine works in order are: Part 1: East 11th St NY 10003 (1982), L'ECRAN parfum (1988), Viriditas (1994), La femme invisible (1989); Part 2: La coupure (1989-2000); Part 3: L'ouvre au noir (1990), Eileadh squaibe (1990), Introitus (1989-1990), Oceanos (1985-1996). Presented by Tom Service. Tom Service presents the world premiere of James Dillon's epic cycle Nine Rivers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
James Macmillan | 20140222 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a recent concert of works by James MacMillan, in conversation with the composer at his home in Glasgow. MacMillan himself conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a programme which includes world premieres of two recently rediscovered early orchestral works, Symphonic Study and The Keening, and the concert's centrepiece is his violin concerto, A Deep but Dazzling Darkness, featuring the BBC SSO's leader Laura Samuel. Symphonic Study (World Premiere) For Sonny (World Premiere of new arrangement) A Deep but Dazzling Darkness for solo violin, ensemble and tape (Scottish Premiere) Exsultet for brass quintet The Keening (World Premiere) Laura Samuel - violin James MacMillan - conductor Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow. James MacMillan conducts his own music with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Jane Manning | 20100306 | From the sixties to the present day, Jane Manning continues to be an inspiration for successive generations of composers and performers. With the help of forty years of recordings and contributions from those who have written for and worked with the iconic soprano, Ivan Hewett talks to Manning about her achievement. Including music recorded with her group Jane's Minstrels at the Purcell Room last month. Brian Elias Peroration (conclusion) (2:42) CD: NMC D025, tr. 7 Elizabeth Lutyens The Valley of Hatsu-Se (Op. 62) (beginning) (4:45) Jane Manning (soprano) Jane ??s Minstrels Robert Manasse (flute) Dov Goldberg (clarinet) Adrian Bradbury (cello) Dominic Saunders (piano) Roger Montgomery (conductor) [rec. Purcell Room 25.02.10] Harrison Birtwistle Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (excerpt) (2:14) The Matrix Alan Hacker (director) CD: SRCD.306, tr. 3 Judith Weir King Harald ??s Saga, Act 3 (exceprt) (1:38) CD: Novello Records NVLCD109, tr. 18 Anthony Payne Scenes from the Woodlanders (excerpt) (3:00) Jane ??s Minstrels/Roger Montgomery CD: NMC D130, tr. 2 Horn Trio (broadcast premiere) (16:25) Jane ??s Minstrels: Roger Montgomery (horn) Susanne Stanzeleit (violin) Dai Fujikura Love Excerpt (world premiere) (3:34) [text: Harry Ross] David Sawer Caravan (world premiere) (3:31) [text: Hugo Ball] Dov Goldberg (bass clarinet) Philip Neil Martin Window (world premiere) (2:14) [text: Rainer Maria Rilke] Marina Gillam (violin) James MacMillan The Beneficiaries (world premiere) (0:57) [text: Les Murray] Deirdre Gribbin Are you the Dream Catcher? (world premiere) (8:00) Colin Matthews Marginalia (world premiere) (3:27) [text: Sir Joshua Reynold ??s ??Discourses ?? with annotations by William Blake] Jane Manning & Marina Gillam (voices) Robert Manasse (alto flute) Cheryl Frances-Hoad Don ??t ! (world premiere) (2:46) [text: Blanche Ebbutt ??Don ??t for Wives ??] Robert Manasse (piccolo) Personal Stereo (excerpt) (1:45) Jane Manning (soprano) + tape [BBC archive, rec. 1996] Richard Rodney Bennett Nightpiece (excerpt) (3:25) [BBC archive, rec. 1972] Arnold Schoenberg Der Kranke Mond (from Pierrot Lunaire) (2:14) Vesuvius Ensemble CD: Forum FRC 9016 tr. 7 Olivier Messiaen L ??amour de Piroutcha (from Harawi) (3:28) David Miller (piano) CD: Unicorn-Kanchana DPK(CD)9034 Ivan Hewett talks to iconic soprano Jane Manning about her inspirational career. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Jeremy Dale Roberts | 20130907 | Ivan Hewett talks to Jeremy Dale Roberts about his music before introducing the world premiere performance of his new String Quintet. It was written in homage to his teacher Priaulx Rainier and inspired by, amongst other things, the Frieze of Life paintings by Edvard Munch and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Jeremy Dale Roberts: The Dancer on the Shore Kreutzer Quartet Bridget MacRae (cello) Recorded at Wilton's Music Hall in London in May Also in the programme are Jeremy Dale Roberts's Winter Music and his Oggetti - Ommaggio a Morandi. Ivan Hewett presents the world premiere of Jeremy Dale Roberts's The Dancer on the Shore. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Cage | 20120915 | Robert Worby introduces music by John Cage, performed by Ilan Volkov with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, recorded as part of Glasgow's Merchant City Festival in July. And from the 2008 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Philip Thomas and Lore Lixenberg are the soloists in She Is Asleep, an early Cage work for voice, prepared piano and percussion. Plus in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, Ivan Hewett nominates Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervanszky for string quartet. With commentary from writer Paul Griffiths. John Cage: ear for EAR (Antiphonies); Concerto for Prepared Piano; Improvisation III BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and guest musicians Ilan Volkov (conductor); John Tilbury (piano) Gyorgy Kurtag: Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervanszky Keller Quartet John Cage: She Is Asleep Lore Lixenberg (voice); Philip Thomas (piano) University of Huddersfield Percussion Ensemble. Music by John Cage and Gyorgy Kurtag. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Cage's Indeterminacy | 20160625 | Comedian Stewart Lee and improvisers Steve Beresford and Tania Chen perform their interpretation of John Cage's 1959 recording Indeterminacy in a performance given at London's Cafe Oto in April. Robert Worby talks to the trio about how they approached the work, which involves the carefully timed reading of randomly selected stories by Cage - personal musings on subjects ranging from mushroom identification to music lessons with Arnold Schoenberg - to a disconnected musical accompaniment. The concert also features works for piano and electronics by Cage and Tania Chen, performed by Chen alongside American experimentalist Jon Leidecker. Stewart Lee, Tania Chen and Steve Beresford perform John Cage's Indeterminacy. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Corigliano, Stephen Mcneff, Colin Matthews, Brett Dean | 20131026 | Ivan Hewett introduces a Beethoven-themed programme from the Royal Northern College of Music's 21st-Century Beethoven festival, with works by Stephen McNeff, John Corigliano, Colin Matthews and Brett Dean (performed by the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Clark Rundell). Plus a recorded performance of Clarence Barlow's Variazioni e un pianoforte meccanico for pianist and player piano, played by John Snijders. John Corigliano: Fantasia on an ostinato Stephen McNeff: Heiligenstadt Colin Matthews: Grand Barcarolle Brett Dean: Testament Clark Rundell (conductor) Clarence Barlow: Variazioni e un pianoforte meccanico John Snijders (player piano). Ivan Hewett with music by John Corigliano, Stephen McNeff, Colin Matthews and Brett Dean. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Harbison | 20081018 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert celebrating the 70th birthday of John Harbison, one of the senior figures in American music, alongside music by younger American composers. John Harbison: Emerson 13:51 Peter Child - Pantomime 15:22 John Harbison - Chorale Cantata 10:00 Kay Rhie: Moromoto ni/Cherry Tree 7:18 John Harbison - The Flower-Fed Buffaloes 21:28 BBC Singers Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez (part of the London Festival of American Music, recorded Oct. 4th at St Giles Cripplegate) Sara Mohr-Pietsch with a concert celebrating the 70th birthday of composer John Harbison. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Tavener | 20140104 | At the Manchester International Festival in July 2013, the BBC Philharmonic gave a concert of music by John Tavener, including three world premieres - some of the last music he composed before his death in November at the age of 69. In tonight's Hear and Now the concert is presented by Tom Service in conversation with Judith Weir - as an aspiring teenage composer in the early 1970s, Weir had lessons from Tavener, who lived nearby. And we'll also hear from Tavener himself, in archive interviews. John Tavener: Love Duet from The Play of Krishna (World Premiere) Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), John Mark Ainsley (tenor). In Alium Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano). Mahကmကtar Abida Parveen (voice), Manchester International Festival Sacred Sounds Choir. If Ye Love Me (World Premiere) MIF Sacred Sounds Choir. The Death of Ivan Ilyich (World Premiere) Jonathan Lemalu (bass-baritone), Steven Isserlis (cello). Tecwyn Evans (conductor). Music by John Tavener, presented by Tom Service in conversation with composer Judith Weir. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
John Zorn Birthday Concert | 20130112 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Tom Service introduce a concert given earlier this evening in Glasgow by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra celebrating the 60th birthday of the American composer John Zorn, including the world premiere of a BBC Commission, Supp䀀ts et Suppliciations. John Zorn: Orchestral Variations John Zorn: La Machine de l'ꀀtre (Allison Bell, soprano) John Zorn: Supp䀀ts et Suppliciations (BBC Commission, world premiere) John Zorn: Kol Nidre John Zorn: Aporias (Stephen Drury piano; members of the Choristers of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Tom Service with a concert celebrating the birthday of John Zorn. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Jonathan Harvey, Walter Murch | 20120428 | Tom Service introduces two contrasting vocal works by one of the UK's leading composers. Jonathan Harvey: Song Offerings Claire Booth, soprano Nash Ensemble Lionel Friend, conductor Jonathan Harvey: Summer Clouds Awakening Latvian Radio Choir/James Wood Jonathan Harvey (electronics), Carl Faia (electronics), Clive Williamson (synthesizer), Ilona Meija (flute) & Arne Deforce (cello) And in the latest instalment of the 'Hear and Now Fifty', the American film editor and sound designer Walter Murch nominates 'Symphonie pour un homme seul' by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, music he first heard on the radio as a schoolboy and which influenced his subsequent work in the field of film sound. Author and journalist Rob Young puts the work in context of post-war Paris and Schaeffer's early experiments at French Radio which led to the birth of musique concrete. Tom Service presents Jonathan Harvey's Song Offerings and Summer Clouds Awakening. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Jonathan Harvey's Glasgow Trilogy | 20140503 | Featuring a celebration of the English composer Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012), who would have been 75 today. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch in conversation with Professor Jonathan Cross of Oxford University. Harvey: Body Mandala; Speakings; ... towards a pure land BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Ilan Volkov. ~Hear And Now Fifty Harvey: Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco Composers' Rooms: Tansy Davies Nonesuch at Fifty Wuorinen: Time's Encomium In 2005-8, as Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Harvey composed a trilogy of works for the orchestra and their then Chief Conductor Ilan Volkov. This Glasgow Trilogy was first heard together in the planned order of performance at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival, and it's a recording of that performance that you can hear tonight, There's also a second chance to hear the Hear and Now Fifty feature on Harvey's most famous work - Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco. Continuing her series of visits to Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to Kent, and the Georgian home studio of Tansy Davies. And the second work in Hear and Now's series celebrating the fiftieth birthday of the Nonesuch record label is another electronic classic: Time's Encomium (1968-69) by Charles Wuorinen, commissioned by Nonesuch especially for LP, which in 1970 became the first electronic work to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates the music of Jonathan Harvey, with his Glasgow Trilogy. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kagel, The Pieces Of The Compass Rose | 20130824 | Robert Worby presents a rare performance of one of the most remarkable works by the Argentinian-born German composer Mauricio Kagel, The Pieces of the Compass Rose, a set of eight pieces scored for salon orchestra and named after the points of the compass: North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. The performance by the London Sinfonietta - including an array of approximately 45 percussion instruments, including cushions, branches and a log and axe - took place at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in June, with conductor Thierry Fischer, who also talks about the pieces. And throughout the programme you can also hear the ever-stimulating thoughts of Kagel himself, from various BBC interviews recorded before his death in 2008. Mauricio Kagel's eight Pieces of the Compass Rose, played by the London Sinfonietta. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang | 20160319 | Presented by Robert Worby, featuring performances of new, experimental and improvised music, recorded at an event curated by Kammer Klang at London's Cafe OTO in February. The new music ensemble Distractfold perform music by Rebecca Saunders, Lee Fraser and Michelle Lou, and the improvising trio Oscilanz interpret the music of the 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Louis d Heudieres: Laughter Studies Juliet Fraser, Jennifer Walshe (vocalists) Rebecca Saunders: Vermilion Distractfold - Rocio Bolanos (clarinet), Alice Purton (cello), Daniel Brew (electric guitar) Lee Fraser: Stheno (electroacoustic work) Michelle Lou: Untitled three part construction Distractfold - Alice Purton (amplified cello), Linda Jankowska, Emma Richards (objects) Improvisation: Zinzia - Parts I, II and III Oscilanz - Laura Cannell (fiddle & recorders), Ralph Cumbers (trombone & electronics), Charles Hayward (drums). New and improvised music from an event at London's Cafe OTO curated by Kammer Klang. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang | 20160416 | Tom McKinney presents the latest Kammer Klang-curated night of contemporary music at London's Cafe Oto, showcasing the work of Michael Finnissy and electronic composer John Wall. Also tonight, more from last month's London EAR Festival, and another chance to hear Sarah Walker's Essay on English experimental composer John White who turned 80 earlier this month. John Wall Cphon (2005) Ruaidhr퀀 Mannion & Antoine Fran瀀oise - Hommage without permission (2016), for piano and electronics Michael Finnissy: Above Earth's Shadow (1985) for solo violin and ensemble Oscar Perks (solo violin) Perks Ensemble Mark Knoop (conductor) John Wall: Untitled John Wall (live electronics) Hannes Dufek: band/linie/horizont lb (UK premiere) Jaime Wolfson (piano, radio, dictaphones) Image (c) Dimitri Djuric. From Cafe Oto in London, music by Michael Finnissy and electronic composer John Wall. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang At Cafe Oto | 20160702 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Exaudi, Ictus and the violinist Eloisa-Fleur Thom with electronics by the young composer Josephine Stephenson in the last Kammer Klang of the 2015-16 season from Cafe Oto in Dalston. Plus Modern Muses features violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja with American composer Michael Hersch talking about their first collaboration on their Violin Concerto, which was premiered in 2015. FRESH KLANG Josephine Stephenson: if nomen boat 2 Eloisa-Fleur Thom (violin) Josephine Stephenson (electronics) Christopher Fox: Catalogue IrraisonÀ(c) (1999-2001) Exaudi Vocal Ensemble James Weeks, director, speaker Christopher Fox, speaker MODERN MUSES 20 Michael Hersch and Patricia Kopatchinskaja talk about how they worked together on the Violin Concerto. Larry Polansky: Sweet Betsy from Pike (2005); Eskimo Lullaby (2005) for voice and the Lou Harrison National Just Intonation Resonator guitar Ictus: Liesa Van der Aa (violin) Tom Pauwels (guitar) Christopher Trapani: Wayfaring Stranger (2015); Freight Train (2015) For voice, violin and guitar Tom Pauwels (guitar). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Ictus and Exaudi in a Kammer Klang from Cafe Oto in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang, Cassandra Miller, Ensemble Plus-minus, Musikfabrik | 20170218 | Tom McKinney presents a rich mix of new music recorded in concert. From a Kammer Klang concert earlier this month at London's Caf退 Oto, there are two world premieres: Cassandra Miller: Tracery : Hardanger Juliet Fraser (soprano) Cassandra Miller: Traveller Song Ensemble Plus-Minus Also new music by Lisa Illean, and a solo by sound artist Christine Sun Kim. And from last November's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: a virtuosic violin solo, Haare by Enno Poppe; a piece for cello and video called String Jack by Michael Beil; and a major ensemble piece by Marcin Stanczyk, Some Drops, featuring Marco Blaauw (trumpet) with Ensemble Musikfabrik Image (c) Dimitri Djuric. Tom McKinney presents new music by Cassandra Miller, Enno Poppe and Marcin Stanczyk. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang, Scenatet Ensemble | 20180707 | Kate Molleson presents a concert from the Kammer Klang series at Caf退 Oto in East London. Scenatet ensemble give the UK premiere of Weep at the Elastic as it Stretches by Matt Rogers, pianist Joseph Houston plays Antonia Barnett-McIntosh's piece for piano and tape The thing is, I think -, and there's a workout for your ears and your imagination in David Helbich's No Music - A performative rehearsal. Plus percussion music by Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, and from the recent Tectonics festival in Glasgow cellist Deborah Walker plays Chaoscaccia, a collaborative piece composed with Pascale Criton. Kate Molleson presents a concert from the Kammer Klang series at Cafe Oto in East London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kammer Klang: Phaedra Ensemble, Christopher Redgate, Klara Lewis And Nik Colk Void | 20170415 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces recordings made at a Kammer Klang event at Cafe Oto in London last month. Phaedra Ensemble open the programme with a pair of works for spoken word and string quartet: John Uren's 'Her Own Dying Moments' is constructed around a recording made by a palliative care doctor in response to the death of David Bowie, while Leo Chadburn's 'The Indistinguishables' catalogues and celebrates the names of moth species sighted in Britain. And following a solo set by oboist Christopher Redgate, we hear the first UK performance by the collaborative duo of electronic musicians Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void. Also tonight, in the latest instalment of Modern Muses, composer Josephine Stephenson and violinist Fiona Monbet compare notes on the creative process. Radio 3's flagship contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 - 2007) | 20071215 | Robert Worby presents a special programme in memory of Stockhausen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kathryn Tickell | 20110723 | Traditional musician Kathryn Tickell performs world premieres of new music based on Northumbrian folk tunes by composers Howard Skempton, Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Finnissy. Recorded at the 2011 Bath Festival, the programme features world premiere performances of three BBC commissions, inspired by the traditional music of the North East of England, and each taken in new directions by some of the UKs most respected composers. Kathryn Tickell is a traditional Northumbrian piper, and as well as performing the new works, plays traditional tunes and her own compositions on the Northumbrian pipes and fiddle. Sara Mohr Pietsch travels to Kathryn's rural home in Northumbria to meet her and find out what inspired this melding of traditional tunes and contemporary composition. Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian pipes & fiddle) Joanna MacGregor (piano) Navarra Quartet Traditional repertoire from Northumbria and the Highlands, alongside: Howard Skempton - Here's the Tender Coming (world premiere / BBC commission) Peter Maxwell Davies - Hadrian's Villa, Hadrian's Wall (world premiere / BBC commission) Michael Finnissy - A-lang Felton Lonnen (world premiere / BBC commission) Alasdair Nicolson: Songs and Drones for the Harp Tree. James MacMillan - 25th May 1967 Traditional musician Kathryn Tickell performs new works based on Northumbrian folk tunes. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Knussen And Ryan Wigglesworth From The Bbc Sso | 20151024 | Ivan Hewett presents a programme which juxtaposes contemporary 'classics' by Oliver Knussen with more recent works by Ryan Wigglesworth. The works tonight were inspired by, amongst many other things, the mysterious puzzle canons of a sixteenth century composer, Frederick Leighton's picture Orpheus and Eurydice, a libretto by Maurice Sendak and the lyric capabilities of the violin. Flourish with Fireworks Music for a Puppet Court (Puzzle pieces for 2 chamber orchestras) Songs and a Sea Interlude from Where the Wild Things Are Violin Concerto Augenlieder Etudes-Tableaux Claire Booth (soprano) Laura Samuel (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor) recorded at City Halls Glasgow earlier this month plus Toru Takemitsu The Seasons (1970) Joby Burgess (percussion). BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Oliver Knussen and Ryan Wigglesworth. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Knussen, Bedford, Turnage | 20090919 | Zoe Martlew presents a concert of all-British music, which also includes a dramatic monologue. Dietmar Wiesner (flute) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor) Knussen: Music for a Puppet Court Luke Bedford: Outblaze the Sky Mark-Anthony Turnage: From All Sides Samuel Beckett: Not I (performed by Fiona Shaw) Mark Anthony Turnage: Five Views of a Mouth (BBC Commission - first performance) Plus a report on John Wynne's new sound installation at Beaconsfield Gallery, featuring an old pianola and 300 abandoned hi-fi speakers. Zoe Martlew presents the BBC SSO performing music by Knussen, Bedford and Turnage. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Kurt Schwertsik | 20100403 | Ivan Hewett interviews Viennese composer Kurt Schwertsik, a man who studied under Kagel and Stockhausen but turned his back on the astringent modernism of Darmstadt to follow his own musical path, with a belief in the inherent validity of tonality and a firm desire to discover new musical textures. Kurt Schwertsik: ..in keltischer Manier... Concerto for Alphorn and Small Orchestra op. 27 (12:40) Nury Guarnaschelli (alphorn) Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Michael Sanderling (conductor) Kurt Schwertsik: Irdische Klange cycle Irdische Klange Symphony op.37 (17:00) Uluru op.64 (17:36) Funf Naturstucke op.45 (15:36) Mit den Riesenstiefeln op.60 (5:21) BBC Philharmonic H.K. Gruber (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents the music of Viennese composer Kurt Schwertsik. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Laurence Crane, Off The Page | 20110326 | Ed McKeon presents a concert celebrating the 50th birthday of one of England's most distinctive composers. Laurence Crane Weirdi Juliet Fraser (soprano) Laurence Crane Piano Piece no.23 'Ethiopian Distance Runners Roderick Chadwick (piano) Laurence Crane Octet Ensemble Plus-Minus Plus a report from Off The Page, the UK's first literary festival for music, held in Whitstable last month. Laurence Crane's music is minimal but also drolly humorous. His early piece Weirdi is a set of five songs, to his own surreal and anecdotal texts, for soprano, with clarinet, cello and piano. It includes a song about a 'new music weirdo' who 'likes Donatoni', and another about seeing the violinist Alexander Balanescu in Safeways buying organic broccoli. Piano Piece No.23, 'Ethiopian Distance Runners' is his first long work for his own instrument. It is a slow, quiet work with an intense concentration that might suggest the mental state of the long-distance runner. The Octet is scored for the intriguing line-up of violin, cello, electric guitar, clarinet and bass clarinet, accordion, electric organ, piano and homemade percussion, creating a richly harmonic sound-world. This concert by Anglo-Belgian ensemble Plus-Minus was recorded at Kings Place in London last month. Writing about music is notoriously difficult, because music is often abstract and operates beyond words. But good writers can illuminate the experience of listening to music, and this was explored by Off The Page, the UK's first literary festival for music, held in Whitstable last month. Ed McKeon attended and discussed ways of writing about music with participants, including editor of The Wire magazine, Rob Young, writer and conceptual artist Kodwo Eshun, and composer, performer and writer David Toop. Ed McKeon presents a concert of Laurence Crane's music, featuring Ensemble Plus-Minus. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Laurence Tompkins, Toshio Hosokawa, Charles Amirkhanian | 20150117 | Ivan Hewett presents a recording of a concert given last month as part of the Manchester-based ddmmyy series and including brand new music by Laurence Tompkins. And we celebrate the 70th birthday of electro-acoustic composer and sound poet Charles Amirkhanian. Larry Goves: A glimpse of the sea in a fold of the hills Laurence Tompkins: Dear Dope/Meeting Point (world premiere) 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). Ivan Hewett presents music by Laurence Tompkins and Charles Amirkhanian. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ldnsnf 40 | 20081213 | From the Royal Festival Hall's Spirit Level, Ivan Hewett introduces an event to mark the fortieth anniversary of the London Sinfonietta, LDNSNF_40, featuring performances of specially-commissioned 'Sinfonietta Short' - solo and duo chamber pieces from Dai Fujikura, Mira Calix, Anna Meredith, Harrison Birtwistle and John Woolrich. Plus a chance to hear new works by Christian Mason, Larry Goves and Claudia Molitor from a concert given earlier this month at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Christian Mason: In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced 10:15 Baldur Bronnimann Recorded 02/12/08, Royal Festival Halls LIVE: Dai Fujikura - Eternal Escape for solo cello 3:00 Timothy Gill (solo cello) LIVE: John Woolrich - Fragment for solo saxophone 3:36 Simon Haram (solo saxophone) LIVE: Will Gregory - Interference for solo saxophone + electronics 10:45 Sound Intermedia (electronics) LIVE: Jordan Hunt - Iambic Stutter 5:00 Kathryn Thomas (flute) Timothy Orpen (clarinet) Byron Fulcher (trombone) Tim Gill (cello) John Constable (piano) Larry Goves: Springtime 7:40 Juliet Fraser (soprano) LIVE: Mira Calix - `ort-oard` for solo cello & electronics 3:38 Timothy Gill (cello) Mira Calix (laptop) LIVE: Street Genius / Culture Collective / London Sinfonietta - `Pop Music` 4:00 David Powell (tuba) Nicole Robson (cello) Timo Tuhkanen (electric guitar) Antoine Francoise (piano) Mira Calix (conductor) Claudia Molitor: Untitled 40 [desk life] 7:13 LIVE: Anna Meredith - Lylat for trombone & electronics 3:21 Byron Fulcher (trombone + electronics) (Items in the montage sequence at the top of the show) Bates: Tentle Moments London Sinfonietta/Diego Masson Album: Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters ARGO 452 099 2 t.8 Nancarrow arr Mikhashoff: Study No.7 London Sinfonietta/Stephen Asbury WARP CD 144 CD1 t.3 Squarepusher arr Fraser Trainer & Sound Intermedia: Conc 2 Symmetriac WARP CD 144 CD2 t.4 Knussen: Flourish with Fireworks op.22 London Sinfonietta/Oliver Knussen Album: Works by Knussen DG 474 322 2 t.3 Takemitsu: Water-Ways London Sinfoneitta/Oliver Knussen Album: Riverrun; Water-Ways etc VIRGIN CLASSICS VC791180 2 t.2 Cage: First Construction in Metal WARP CD 144 CD1 t.4 Reich: Six Marimbas WARP CD 144 CD2 t.3 Tavener: The Whale London Sinfonietta/David Atherton Album: The Whale APPLE CDSAPCOR15 t.1 Julian Anderson: Khorovod Album: Alhambra Fantasy ONDINE ODE10122 t.3 Squarepusher arr David Horne: The Tide WARP CD 144 CD1 t.7 Presented by Ivan Hewett. The London Sinfonietta celebrate their 40th anniversary. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Live At Southbank Centre: Max De Wardener Live Set | 20140322 | Live at Southbank Centre: Robert Worby presents a live set of new music by Max de Wardener, featuring percussionists Joby Burgess and Genevieve Wilkins and sho player Robin Thompson. Plus music by Frank Zappa and the first-ever UK performance using the amazing musical instruments invented by visionary American composer Harry Partch - a recording of a concert given in Bristol a couple of weeks ago by the Cologne-based ensemble MusikFabrik. Radio 3 is broadcasting live from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre all day every day for the last two weeks of March. If you're in the area, join us in the Radio 3 studio and performance space in the Royal Festival Hall Riverside Caf退 to listen to Radio 3, ask questions and enjoy the special events. Robert Worby presents live music from Max de Wardener, plus Frank Zappa and Harry Partch. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Live From The Hcmf 2018 | 20181124 | The first of four visits to this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival comes live from the Blending Shed of Bates's Mill, with a programme reflecting some of the themes of this year's festival, plus an exciting new version of music by Julius Eastman arranged for three string quartets and performed by the Arditti, Bozzini, and Ligeti Quartets. Anthony Braxton - Composition 69M Alexander Hawkins - It Should Be a Song Alexander Hawkins (piano) Stockhausen: from Amour for flute (1976/1981) Camille Hoitenga (flutes and electronics) Julius Eastman - Evil N****r- arranged for three string quartets Arditti Quartet/Bozzini Quartet/Ligeti Quartet Muhal Richard Abrams - Afrisong Muhal Richard Abrams - Peace on You Mike Svoboda - Music for Piccolo (2008) Peter Eotvos - Cadenza from Shadows (2008) John Butcher (saxophone) & Okkyung Lee (cello) - Improvisation for Duo Photo Credit: Nigel Bates Tom McKinney and Robert Worby live from Huddersfield. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival | 20160109 | Ivan Hewett introduces recordings from last month's London Contemporary Music Festival, in conversation with two of the event's directors Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Sam Mackay. And in a recording made specially for Hear and Now, pianist John Snijders performs the world premiere of The Red Studio by Christopher Fox, a work which explores the lost art of 'preluding', when pianists would improvise introductions to, and in between, the different works in a concert. Dieter Schnebel: Maulwerke (2015 solo version) Christian Kesten (vocal) Andrew Hamilton: music for people who like art A genuine coming together Hanna Hartman: Mezcal No.8 (UK premiere) Hanna Hartman (amplified objects) Oyvind Torvund: Untitled School/Mud Jam/Campfire Tunes (UK premiere) Plus-Minus Ensemble: Mark Knoop (piano) Roderick Chadwick (piano) Serge Vuille (percussion) Elsa Bradley (percussion) Christopher Fox: The Red Studio (world premiere) John Snijders (piano) Recorded at Ambika P3, University of Westminster. Recordings from the London Contemporary Music Festival, plus new music by Christopher Fox. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival | 20180106 | Tom Service presents highlights from the London Contemporary Music Festival, recorded in December 2017. Tonight's programme features works by Robert Ashley performed by the new music ensemble Apartment House, with the composer's son Sam Ashley on vocals. Robert Ashley was one of the greatest American experimentalists, following in the pioneering footsteps of John Cage. He co-founded one of the earliest American Electronic Music studios in 1958, and gradually developed into a master of contemporary opera with a distinctively American sound. Photo by Tina Rousou. Highlights from LCMF including works by Robert Ashley. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival | 20190126 | Tom Service presents a concert from the London Contemporary Music Festival, recorded last month. Michael Pisaro: Grain Canons Lawrence Dunn: Set Of Four Apartment House Plus chamber works by Pascale Criton, Greek mourning songs, and a new electronic work by Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey with Steve Hellier: Nobodaddy Sings Songs. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival | 20190202 | Kate Molleson presents music recorded at the London Contemporary Music Festival in December at Ambika P3. The programme includes two LCMF commissions by Elaine Mitchener and Neil Luck for the newly constituted LCMF Orchestra conducted by co-founder Jack Sheen. Both works push at the edges of orchestral writing, exploding the orchestra and muddying its conventions. Elaine Mitchener's magical b r e a d t h b r e a t h, is 'an intimate encounter with singular rituals representing a musical microcosm', and explores the personal and intimate while Neil Luck's Regretfully Yours, Ongoing, sends the orchestra into overdrive! Chaya Czernowin Day One: On the Face of the Deep (2017) UK premiere Jack Sheen (conductor) b r e a d t h b r e a t h (2018) World premiere / LCMF commission Julius Eastman The Prelude and Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc (1981) Sofia Jernberg (soprano) Apartment House Regretfully Yours, Ongoing (2018) Musarc Kate Molleson presents music recorded at London Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival 2016 | 20170204 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents radical 1970s minimalist music by Julius Eastman and Frederic Rzewski from the 2016 London Contemporary Music Festival. Immerse yourself in Eastman's recently rediscovered hour-long blissed-out 'Femenine' [sic], composed in 1974 and here given its UK premiere by Apartment House. And vocalist Elaine Mitchener joins the ensemble for Frederic Rzewski's response to the 1971 Attica prison riots, his raw, punchy 'Coming Together'. Music by Eastman and Rzewski performed at the 2016 London Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Contemporary Music Festival, Joan La Barbara, Chris Newman, Yeah You | 20180113 | Tom Service presents more highlights from the London Contemporary Music Festival, recorded in December 2017. Tonight's programme features works for voice and electronics, composed and performed by Joan La Barbara; songs by Chris Newman performed by the new music ensemble Apartment House, with the composer on vocals; and a solo voice set by Leo Chadburn. Also from this concert, songs from Yeah You, an electronic noise/pop band who record semi-improvised songs using a saloon car as their studio. American vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara is one of the 20th century's great vocal pioneers. She has pioneered experimental multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks over the past five decades. Chris Newman is an experimental interdisciplinary artist based in Germany. He formed a 'chamber-punk' band in the 1980s to perform his songs, which he revives in this concert with Apartment House. Tom Service presents highlights of vocal works from London Contemporary Music Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Ear | 20160402 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents recordings from the London EAR festival of contemporary music, in conversation with its co-director Gwyn Pritchard. Artists featured include violinist Mieko Kanno, percussion group DeciBells XXL and the Platypus Ensemble. And in Modern Muses, the series which looks at some of the key composer-performer partnerships of our times, Steve Reich and percussionist Russell Hartenberger talk about a friendship and musical collaboration which began forty-five years ago with the creation of Reich's seminal masterpiece, Drumming. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents recordings from the 2016 London Ear of contemporary music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Ear, Ensemble \u00f6! | 20180901 | A concert by the Swiss group Ensemble 怀! from this year's London Ear festival of contemporary music, presented by Robert Worby in conversation with festival director Gwyn Pritchard. Andrea Damiano Cotti: Come Un'Isola, Che Sente L'Arcipelag | |
London Ear, Neo Quartet And Jonathan Powell | 20180825 | A concert by the Polish ensemble Neo Quartet alongside pianist Jonathan Powell from this year's London Ear festival of contemporary music, presented by Robert Worby in conversation with festival director Gwyn Pritchard. Rebecca Saunders: Fletch Luciano Berio: Rounds; Cinque Variazioni Seongmin Ji: iiiiiiiiisiiiyiiiiiieiit (world premiere) Dariusz Przybylski: Green and Maroon, Homage a Mark Rothko Iannis Xenakis: Akea Akira Nishimura: String Quartet No.2 Pulses of Light Recorded at the Cello Factory, London, in March. Recordings from this year's London Ear festival of contemporary music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta | 20150411 | Robert Worby presents 20th- and 21st-century music for strings with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Andr退 de Ridder, from Xenakis's 1971 exploration of texture and timbre 'Aroura', to a world premiere from Mica Levi, BAFTA-nominated for her recent 'Under the Skin' film score. Plus Modern Muses, a new, downloadable series looking behind some of the key composer-performer partnerships of our times. Down the centuries, individual performers have frequently played a part in inspiring composers and shaping their music. Think of Handel's operas as a vehicle for the castrato Farinelli, or Mozart's late, great Clarinet Concerto for Anton Stadler, through to Britten's outpouring of songs and operatic roles for Peter Pears. Today's composers, too, often find themselves drawn to particular performers and develop a close and fruitful working relationship. To begin Modern Muses is just such a partnership: Gerald Barry and soprano Barbara Hannigan. Together they discuss past and future collaborations, including the role of Cecily in Barry's 2010 comic opera The Importance of Being Earnest. And from January's Total Immersion event, Mauricio Kagel's 'Rrrrrrr...': a playful sequence of duos, drawing at once on standard percussion and every day sounds, noises, and objects. Iannis Xenakis: Aroura ClaudeVivier: Zipangu Andr退 de Ridder (conductor) Modern Muses: Gerald Barry and Barbara Hannigan Gerald Barry: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Act 4, excerpt) Barbara Hannigan....Gabi (soprano) Stephanie Friede....Petra (soprano) Orchestra of English National Opera Mica Levi: Greezy Georg Friedrich Haas: Open Spaces Mauricio Kagel: Rrrrrrr... Merlin Jones and Sam Wilson (percussion). The London Sinfonietta plays music for strings by Xenakis, Vivier, Mica Levi and GF Haas. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta Pavilions 2 | 20120121 | Ivan Hewett introduces three new chamber-orchestral works by British-based composers: Charlie Piper: Insomniac Francisco Coll: Piedras Dai Fujikura: Double Bass Concerto Enno Senft (double bass) Sound Intermedia London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins (Recorded on 5th November 2011 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London) And in this week's installment of the Hear and Now Fifty, film director Barrie Gavin and South Bank Centre's Gillian Moore champion Jonathan Harvey's electronic work Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco. New chamber music played by London Sinfonietta, and Jonathan Harvey's Mortuos Plango. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta, Adams, Cage, Dresher, Lang | 20091003 | Robert Worby presents an all-American concert, given at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The works range from the driving rhythms of Adams and Lang, to the experimental sounds of Cage. Clio Gould (violin) Sound Intermedia (sound design) London Sinfonietta John Adams (conductor) John Cage: Credo in US 13:38 Paul Dresher: Concerto for violin and electroacoustic band 19:23 David Lang: Cheating Lying Stealing 11:07 John Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony 23:48 An all-American concert by the London Sinfonietta. Music by Adams, Cage, Dresher and Lang. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta, George Benjamin | 20140215 | Tom Service introduces a concert of new music performed by the London Sinfoneitta as part of the Southbank Centre's Rest is Noise festival last December. Plus an excerpt from a conversation between Tom Service and composer George Benjamin about the future of composition. Marko Nikodijevic: music box / self portrait with Ligeti and Stravinsky (and Messiaen is also present) Simon Steen-Anderson: Chambered Music Mark Simpson: Straw Dogs Rebecca Saunders: Stirrings Edmund Finnis: Seeing is Flux Francisco Coll: Ad Marginem London Sinfonietta Baldur Bronnimann (conductor). New works by Simon Steen-Anderson, Rebecca Saunders, Edmund Finnis and Francisco Coll. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta, Laurence Crane, Marisol Jimenez, Morton Feldman | 20151114 | Ivan Hewett introduces a recording by the London Sinfonietta featuring two world premieres and a rare performance of Morton Feldman's 1987 swansong For Samuel Beckett, from a concert given in the round at St John's Smith Square last month. And continuing our series Modern Muses, composer Michael Oliva and alto flautist Carla Rees compare notes on the creative process. Laurence Crane: Chamber Symphony No.2 'The Australian' (world premiere) Marisol J퀀m退nez: XLIII Memoriam Vivere (world premiere) Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett Garry Walker (conductor). The London Sinfonietta performs new music by Laurence Crane and Marisol Jimenez. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
London Sinfonietta, Marco Stroppa, Peter Eotvos, Boulez, Stockhausen | 20110709 | Tom Service presents a concert from the 2011 Aldeburgh Festival, recorded last month, which explores the movement of sound in space, featuring three composers connected with IRCAM, the Parisian centre of avant-garde music and research. Tom is joined to discuss the works by the London Sinfonietta's Chief Executive, Andrew Burke. Peter Eotvos SCHILLER: energische Schonheit (UK premiere) Marco Stroppa From Needle's Eye (UK premiere) Pierre Boulez explosante-fixe ... Peter E怀tv怀s conductor Michael Cox solo flute Byron Fulcher solo trombone EXAUDI vocal ensemble Sound Intermedia Andrew Gerzso IRCAM computer music designer J退r退mie Henrot IRCAM Sound engineer Stockhausen Jubilaeum BBC Symphony Orchestra Oliver Knussen. Tom Service presents the London Sinfonietta in works by Marco Stroppa and Peter Eotvos. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Lore Lixenberg And David Alberman | 20090530 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert of virtuoso music for voice, violin and electronics, talks to the performers and gets a preview of the 2009 Spitalfields Festival from artistic director Diana Burrell. Lore Lixenberg (mezzo-soprano) David Alberman (violin) Mark Webber (sound projection) Georges Aperghis: Recitation No 8 Cage: Aria; Fontana Mix Gyorgy Kurtag: SK Remembrance Noise, Op 12 Bent Sorensen: Vocalise Per Norgard: Zwei Saiten eine Stimme; The Secret Melody Sorensen: Six Songs; Three Stones Simon Holt: Caprices Nos 4 and 6 Diana Burrell: Paragraph (world premiere) (Recorded at Spitalfields Festival 2007) Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents performances by Lore Lixenberg and David Alberman. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Louis Andriessen | 20090606 | To mark the 70th birthday of Louis Andriessen, Zoe Martlew interviews the Dutch composer at his home in Amsterdam to discover the driving forces behind his music and the background to works featured in the programme, De Stijl and De Staat. Louis Andriessen: De Stijl (1984-5) Gertrude Thoma (voice) Schoenberg Ensemble with Asko Ensemble Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor) Andriessen: De Staat (1973-76) Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor). Zoe Martlew interviews composer Louis Andriessen and presents recordings of two key works. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Louis Andriessen Portrait | 20080329 | Ivan Hewett discusses Dutch composer Louise Andriessen with composer Steve Martland. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Louis Andriessen's La Commedia | 20160220 | The UK premiere of Louis Andriessen's most recent music theatre work La Commedia, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. Presented by Tom Service in conversation with the composer. Louis Andriessen: La Commedia Claron McFadden (soprano), Cristina Zavalloni (voice), Andrew Sauvageau (voice), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Martyn Brabbins. Tom Service presents the UK premiere of Louis Andriessen's music theatre work La Commedia. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Luca Francesconi's Quartett, Composers' Rooms: Harrison Birtwistle | 20140705 | Tom Service presents the eagerly anticipated UK premiere of Luca Francesconi's Quartett and Sara Mohr Pietsch meets Sir Harrison Birtwistle in Composers' Rooms. Premiered at La Scala in Milan in 2011, Francesconi's chamber opera is a setting of Heiner Müller's sensational play, Quartett from 1980, which was in turn inspired by the famous epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Pierre-Ambroise-Fran瀀ois Choderlos de Laclos. In Müller's radical reworking only two roles have remained: the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont. But the Quartett of the title still exists as, in a succession of perverse role playing, Merteuil and Valmont play out their doubles. Set in a 'Salon before the French Revolution/Bunker after the Third World War,' Francesconi exposes the abyss of base human instincts in an endgame of fear and greed. Presented by Tom Service Composers' Rooms Sara Mohr Pietsch visits the Wiltshire home and studio of Sir Harrison Birtwistle Birtwistle Three Latin Motets from The Last Supper BBC Singers, Nicholas Kok (conductor) at 10.25pm Luca Francesconi Quartett Marquise de Merteuil..... Kirsten Chavez..... (mezzo-soprano) Vicomte de Valmont..... Leigh Melrose..... (baritone) London Sinfonietta with the projected sound of the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan Andrew Gourlay (conductor) Recorded on 24th June at Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio Theatre. With Francesconi's Quartett and Composers' Rooms: Harrison Birtwistle. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Luigi Nono, Olga Neuwirth, George Crumb | 20120310 | Robert Worby presents two vocal works by the great Italian Modernist Luigi Nono, and Olga Neuwirth's homage to cult singer Klaus Nomi; and a classic 20th Century quartet by Crumb is this week's focus in the Hear And Now Fifty. Nono: Donde estas Hermano? Nono: La fabbrica Illuminata Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart In the latest instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, David Harrington celebrates George Crumb's groundbreaking 1970 work for electric string quartet, Black Angels - the work which inspired him to form the Kronos Quartet. And Gillian Moore puts the piece in context, as a work full of dark foreboding and extreme sounds, in direct reaction to the Vietnam War. George Crumb: Black Angels Olga Neuwirth: songs from Hommage | |
Luke Bedford, Gavin Bryars | 20130615 | Continuing Radio 3's celebration of British music, Tom Service introduces a concert of works by Luke Bedford, performed by the London Sinfonietta at the South Bank Centre last month. And in the second of four interviews with British composers celebrating their 70th birthday this year, Gavin Bryars reflects on his early career in conversation with Robert Worby, focusing on the experimental piece 1, 2, 1-2-3-4, in which musicians perform independently of each other to pre-recorded music on cassette. Luke Bedford: The Wonderful No-Headed Nightingale (UK Premiere of ensemble version) Gerard Grisey: Periodes from Les Espaces Acoustiques Luke Bedford: Renewal (World Premiere) Sian Edwards (conductor) Gavin Bryars: 1, 2, 1-2-3-4 Gavin Bryars (double bass) Christopher Hobbs (piano) Cornelius Cardew (cello) Derek Bailey (guitar) Mike Nicolls (drums) Celia Gollin and Brian Eno (vocals) Andy Mackay (oboe) Stuart Deeks (violin) Paul Nieman (trombone). Tom Service introduces music by Luke Bedford and Gavin Bryars. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Luke Bedford, Seven Angels | 20120414 | Tom Service presents a performance of young British composer Luke Bedford's 2011 chamber opera Seven Angels. Commissioned and given its premiere by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and The Opera Group, it tells the story of seven angels who have fallen through space and time for so long, they have forgotten why. Coming to rest on a desert landscape, they imagine the creation of a legendary garden that once flourished there and its destruction from greed and neglect. Bedford's first opera, it has a libretto by the poet Glyn Maxwell, and was inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost. Tom is joined by tenor Christopher Lemmings, the BCMG's artistic director Stephen Newbould and composer Luke Bedford to discuss the opera, and it is preceded by Luke's 2006 piece Or Voit Tout En Aventure.. Music - Luke Bedford Libretto - Glyn Maxwell Conductor Nicholas Collon Director John Fulljames Angel 1 / Waitress Rhona McKail Angel 2 /Queen Emma Selway Angel 3 / Chef / Priestess Louise Mott Angel 4 / Prince Christopher Lemmings Angel 5 / Porter / Industrialist Joseph Shovelton Angel 6 / Gardener / General Owen Gilhooly Angel 7 / King Keel Watson BCMG Players: Flute / Piccolo / Alto Flute: Marie-Christine Zupancic Clarinet / Bass Clarinet: Mark O'Brien Bassoon / Contra-bassoon: Margaret Cookhorn Trumpet / Flugelhorn: Jonathan Holland Trombone: Duncan Wilson Percussion: Simon Limbrick Piano: Malcolm Wilson Viola 1: Christopher Yates Viola 2: Michael Jenkinson Viola 3: Myriam Guillaume Viola 4 / Violin: Marcus Barcham-Stevens Double Bass: John Tattersdill Seven Angels was commissioned and produced by The Opera Group and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and co-produced with ROH2 and Tramway Glasgow. www.theoperagroup.co.uk www.bcmg.org.uk. Tom Service presents a performance of Luke Bedford's 2011 chamber opera Seven Angels. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Luke Bedford: Through His Teeth, Julian Anderson, Charlotte Bray, Laurence Crane | 20171028 | Tom McKinney presents a selection of new British music, including a psychodramatic opera by Luke Bedford. Charlotte Bray: At the Speed of Stillness Aldeburgh World Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder Luke Bedford: Through his Teeth Opera Factory Freiburg, Holst-Sinfonietta, Klaus Simon (conductor), Siri Karoline Thornhill (soprano), Sirin Kilic (mezzo soprano), Georg G䀀dker (baritone) (Produced by SWR. To be released on bastille musique in December 2017) Sound Of The Week: Laurence Crane introduces a favourite sound Laurence Crane: John White in Berlin Apartment House Julian Anderson: Symphony BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. Tom McKinney presents a psychodramatic opera by Luke Bedford amongst more British music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Macmillan, Gruber | 20100814 | Ivan Hewett presents music by James MacMillan and HK Gruber. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Mark Simpson And Pleasure | 20160611 | Tom McKinney introduces a programme of music by Mark Simpson, including his new opera "Pleasure", recorded last month at Opera North in Leeds. The one-act opera is set in a gay nightclub "somewhere in England" and explores ideas of pleasure as an escape from reality, rejection and reconciliation. The production is a joint venture between Opera North, Aldeburgh Music and The Royal Opera and features a libretto by poet Melanie Challenger. Nathan - Timothy Nelson Val - Lesley Garrett Anna Fewmore - Steven Page Matthew - Nick Pritchard Band: Psappha, conducted by Nicholas Kok The programme also features a selection of chamber music from Mark Simpson's recently released album "Night Music". Radio 3's flagship contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Matthias Pintscher Conducts | 20171111 | Kate Molleson introduces a concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Pintscher and recorded earlier this evening at Glasgow City Halls. Claude Vivier's piece reflects the famous book by Hermann Hesse depicting the spiritual journey of a young man in search of enlightenment. Hesse's poem 'Im Nebel' ('In the Mist') inspired a trumpet concerto in 2013 by the Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa (here receiving its UK Premiere), while his countryman Toru Takemitsu is represented by his tribute to the American composer Morton Feldman. Also tonight, Graham McKenzie, artistic director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, previews this year's event in its landmark 40th edition, much of which will be broadcast on Hear and Now in the coming weeks. And, as part of Radio 3's Breaking Free season of Russian culture, a sequence of new and experimental music from Moscow and beyond. Toshio Hosokawa: Im Nebel (UK Premiere) Simon Hofele (trumpet) Toru Takemitsu: Twill by Twilight (In memory of Morton Feldman) Claude Vivier: Siddhartha Matthias Pintscher (conductor). Works by Toshio Hosokawa, Toru Takemitsu and Claude Vivier. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Matthias Pintscher Focus | 20100918 | Robert Worby presents a concert conducted by the German composer Matthias Pintscher, which features his own music alongside two of his favourite composers. Edgard Varese: Octandre Matthias Pintscher: Celestial Object No.1 * Wolfgang Rihm: Verwandlung No.3 Matthias Pintscher: Transir** Edgard Varese: Integrales Mark O'Keeffe, trumpet* Sebastian Wittiber, flute** BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Pintscher Plus a chamber work recorded at last year's Cheltenham Festival. Matthias Pintscher: Study IV for Treatise on the Veil Diotima Quartet. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra plays Matthias Pintscher, Edgard Varese and Wolfgang Rihm. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Max Richter's Memoryhouse | 20140517 | Tom Service introduces the first ever concert performance of Memoryhouse, Max Richter's post-rock influenced first album. A set of eighteen variations, the album's eighteen tracks take us on a musical journey from 'Europe, After the Rain' to 'Last Days' with memories of a love story played out during the Bosnian war, the sound objects of John Cage and an ode to the Netherlands' composer Jan Sweelinck among the many references. That's followed by a meeting with the Glasgow-based composer and visual artist Hanna Tuulikki in Hear and Now's ongoing series of Composers' Rooms, and a last look at some of the pioneering recordings released on the American Nonesuch label. Tonight the spotlight falls on John Cage's HPSCHD, a work conceived in 1967 in collaboration with the University of Illinois department of computer science. Max Richter: Memoryhouse Max Richter (piano, celeste, keyboards) Katherine Manley (soprano) Eva Thorarinsdottir (violin) Paul Grennan (cello) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andr退 de Ridder (conductor) Max Richter: On the Nature of Daylight c. 11.20pm Composers' Rooms: Hanna Tuulikki with Sara Mohr-Pietsch c. 11.35pm Concluding our survey of early electronic releases by the American Nonesuch label: John Cage: HPSCHD for harpsichord and computer-generated sound tapes. Max Richter's Memoryhouse, Hanna Tuulikki in Composers' Rooms and John Cage's HPSCHD. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michael Finnissy | 20090822 | Ivan Hewett presents the world premiere performance of a work by Michael Finnissy given at the 2009 Spitalfields Festival, as well as conversation with the composer. Between the two halves of the piece, composer Alwynne Pritchard gives an appreciation of this work in relation to Finnissy's substantial oeuvre. The Transgressive Gospel follows the story of Christ's Passion, using passages from Tyndale's English translation of the Gospel of St Mark, interspersed with blues-inflected settings of George Herbert's metaphysical poems and texts by Rimbaud and others. Michael Finnissy: The Transgressive Gospel (world premiere) Kate Westbrook and Richard Jackson (vocals) Ixion Kirsten LeStrange (violin) Daniel Palmizio (viola) Michael Finnissy (conductor) Michael Finnissy's The Transgressive Gospel performed at the 2009 Spitalfields Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michael Finnissy | 20161015 | Robert Worby talks to composer Michael Finnissy about his long and richly creative life in music, and introduces some major pieces from his oeuvre. The programme also includes a studio recording of Finnissy playing short piano works by some of his favourite contemporary composers. Michael Finnissy: Piano Concerto no.3 James Clapperton (piano) Ixion conducted by Michael Finnissy Michael Finnissy: Janne BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov plus short pieces by Judith Weir, Chris Newman, Howard Skempton, Laurence Crane, Andrew Toovey, Cassandra Miller, Geoff Hannan, Leo Grant, Michael Blake, Matthew Lee Knowles and Kyungjin Han, played by Michael Finnissy (piano). Robert Worby presents music by Michael Finnissy, in conversation with the composer. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michael Finnissy, Cassandra Miller, An Assembly | 20180609 | Robert Worby presents a concert that combines a classic of New Complexity by Finnissy from the 1970s, with more recent works exploring aspects of density and repetition. Anthony Leung: Three Concert Pieces (no.1) Paul Newland: Locus Bryn Harrison: Six Symmetries Cassandra Miller: Philip The Wanderer Michael Finnissy: Piano Concerto no.2 Joseph Havlat (piano) An Assembly with Ensemble x.y (Recorded on April 27th at St John's Waterloo in London). Robert Worby presents music by Cassandra Miller, Bryn Harrison and Michael Finnissy. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michael Hersch At Aldeburgh | 20180623 | Tom McKinney introduces music by Michael Hersch including recordings of new works made at this year's Aldeburgh Festival, performed by members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, including his powerful new piece "I hope we get a chance to visit soon" prompted by a close friend's emotional struggle with terminal cancer. Michael Hersch - "Images From A Closed Ward " - mvt 1 Flux Quartet (CD) Michael Hersch: of ages manifest (extracts) The Vanishing Pavilions (extracts) Sound of the Week: As part of Radio 3's Forest Season Chris Watson introduces his favourite sound from the Kielder Forest in Northumberland. Michael Hersch: "I hope we get a chance to visit soon" (European premiere) Ah Young Hong (soprano) Kiera Duffy (soprano) Gary Louie (alto saxophone) Amy Yang (piano) Tito Muကoz conductor. Music by Michael Hersch recorded at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michel Van Der Aa, Blai Soler And Pierre Boulez | 20111008 | Ivan Hewett introduces the UK premiere of Michel van der Aa's orchestral song-cycle Spaces of Blank, performed at this summer's Spitalfields Festival by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Marshall and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Renes, and the premiere of Plain-Chant by Blai Soler, one of the young composers working on the London Philharmonic's Foyle Future Firsts scheme. And in Part 4 of the Hear and Now Fifty, Sir Harrison Birtwistle tells why he thinks that if Pierre Boulez had never written any other piece than his 1950s cycle for voice and six instruments Le Marteau sans maitre, 'he would still be a very famous composer', and Paul Griffiths explains how its use of 'total serialism' illuminates the fleeting, surrealist poetry of Rene Char Full programme: Michel van der Aa: Spaces of Blank (UK premiere) Stephanie Marshall (mezzo-soprano) Lawrence Renes (conductor) Blai Soler: Plain-Chant (world premiere) London Philharmonic Orchestra Clement Power (conductor) The Hear and Now Fifty: Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maitre Elizabeth Laurence (mezzo) Ensemble InterContemporain Pierre Boulez (conductor). Ivan Hewett introduces Michel van der Aa's Spaces of Blank. Plus The Hear and Now Fifty. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Michel Van Der Aa: Sunken Garden | 20130504 | Sunken Garden, the latest stage-work by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa, sets a libretto by prize-winning novelist David Mitchell about a film-maker whose search for two missing persons leads him to a liminal place between life and death. Mixing live performance with pre-recorded film and holograms, it has been described by its creators as an 'occult mystery film-opera'. Tom Service introduces a performance from the world-premiere run, given in April by English National Opera at the Barbican Theatre in London. Cast Toby Kramer - Roderick Williams Zenna Briggs - Katherine Manley Iris Marinus - Claron McFadden Simon Vines - Jonathan McGovern Amber Jacquemain - Kate Miller-Heidke ENO Orchestra Andre de Ridder (conductor). Tom Service introduces Michel van der Aa's new opera Sunken Garden, recorded last month. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Milton Babbitt And Moondog | 20160507 | Ivan Hewett celebrates the centenaries this month of two American mavericks who continue to inspire today: Milton Babbitt and Moondog. From a concert given at St Nicholas Church in Brighton in February, we hear rarely performed chamber works of Babbitt including two European premieres, alongside his masterpiece Philomel, performed by soprano Juliet Fraser to a newly restored tape part. Jazz pianist Ethan Iverson and writer Paul Griffiths discuss Philomel in a feature which includes archive interviews with the composer. And tonight's studio guest is writer, producer and musician John L. Walters who assesses the legacy and influence of Moondog, another extraordinary figure in American music, often to be found busking on the streets of New York dressed as a viking, and whose playful compositions, invented instruments and poetry won admirers in Igor Stravinsky and Philip Glass. Milton Babbitt: Reflections, for piano and tape (1975) Mark Knoop (piano) Milton Babbitt: Homily (1987) Adam Bushell (snare drum) Milton Babbitt: None but the Lonely Flute (1987) Helen Whittaker (flute) Milton Babbitt: Philomel, for soprano and tape (1964) Juliet Fraser (soprano) Milton Babbitt: Autobiography of the Eye (2004; European premiere) Sarah Gabriel (soprano) Rohan de Saram (cello) Milton Babbitt: An Encore (2006; European premiere) Mandhira de Saram (violin) Julian Trevelyan (piano) Milton Babbitt: Accompanied Recitative (1994) Huw Wiggin (soprano saxophone) Milton Babbitt: Soli e Duettini (1989) Jon Rattenbury, Brian Ashworth (guitars). Ivan Hewett marks the centenaries of maverick composers Milton Babbitt and Moondog. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Monteverdi 450 | 20170513 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the influence of the Italian madrigalists on contemporary composers from Sciarrino to Finnissy and Nono to her studio guest, the composer James Weeks. In addition to recordings of Finnissy's 'Gesualdo Libro Sesto' and Nono's 'Sar | |
Morton Subotnick At Cafe Oto | 20150704 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a rare UK performance by the American composer Morton Subotnick, best known for his pioneering electronic work Silver Apples of the Moon. As part of the ongoing series Modern Muses, Korean composer Unsuk Chin discusses her collaboration with Chinese sheng player Wu Wei. And we hear the world premiere of pianist-composer Rolf Hind's Himalayan-inspired Tiger's Nest, recorded at the Cheltenham Festival earlier today. Rolf Hind: Tiger's Nest Joby Burgess (percussion) Zubin Kanga, Richard Uttley (pianos) Robert Campion, Isabelle Carr退 (solo gamelan) Cheltenham Community Gamelan Players, directed by Jonathan Roberts Morton Subotnick: From Silver Apples of the Moon to A Sky of Cloudless Sulfur: V Morton Subotnick (live electronics) Recorded at Cafe Oto, London, in June. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents live recordings of music by Rolf Hind and Morton Subotnick. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Muhly, Riley, Adams | 20110604 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents minimalist and post-minimalist music by three generations of American composers. Nico Muhly: Seeing Is Believing Thomas Gould (electric violin) Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon Terry Riley: ArchAngels Cello Octet Amsterdam John Adams: Chamber Symphony Nico Muhly is a rising star in contemporary composition - his new opera Two Boys opens in London on 24th June. He worked as an assistant to Philip Glass, one of the first generation of American Minimalists, and his music might be called 'post-minimalist', as it employs the repeating patterns of minimalism but adds rich harmonies and complex textures, as in this concerto for electric violin. Terry Riley is another Minimalist pioneer, and his cello octet ArchAngels uses different string tunings to create a darkly resonant soundworld. John Adams' Chamber Symphony combines the unlikely influences of Arnold Schoenberg and classic American cartoon music (one movement is called Roadrunner) to make an action-packed rollercoaster-ride of manic virtuosity. (Music recorded in recent concert performances at King's Place, London and at the Sounds New Festival, Canterbury.). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents minimalist music by Nico Muhly, Terry Riley and John Adams. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music From Ireland And Iceland | 20100508 | Sara Mohr Pietsch looks West tonight with music from two Irish New Music festivals, and an investigation of the new music scene in Iceland, as well as a composer diary entry from Mira Calix and Tansy Davies. Frank Lyons: Crosstalk for improvising electric guitarist and string quartet Simon Jermyn (electric guitar) and Smith Quartet Dan퀀el Bjarnason: Processions Halflidi Hallgrimsson: Narratives From The Deep North V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson (piano) Ulster Orchestra Dan퀀el Bjarnason, conductor Music from Ireland and Iceland that crosses the stylistic boundaries. Frank Lyons' new piece features a part for improvising electric guitarist alongside the traditional classical ensemble of a string quartet. Lyons says: "Jazz, rock, pop, avant-garde, minimalism: elements from all of these inform my style. I also want my music to convey a sense of fun, a quality that is too often lost in the oh-so-serious world of contemporary music." 30-year-old Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason is no stranger to rock music, having scored strings for Icelandic artrockers Hjaltalin, and conducted Abbey Road sessions for Sigur Ros. Bjarnason's piano concerto Processions has the intensity of contemporary rock music, though it's scored for an orchestra and a grand piano - and he conducts the performance himself. The Lyons was recorded at the Sligo New music Festival in Eire, and the Ulster Orchestra concert conducted by Daniel Bjarnason was recorded at the Sonorities Festival in Belfast. Also in this programme, an audio diary from composer Tansy Davies and electronica artist Mira Calix, about their current collaboration. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents new music from Ireland and Iceland. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music Nation: Heiner Goebbels | 20120303 | A BBC-led weekend of over 100 live music events across the UK - from Cornwall to the Shetland Isles and Belfast to Birmingham - launching the nationwide countdown to the London 2012 Festival. Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein. Tom Service introduces a complete performance of Surrogate Cities by German composer Heiner Goebbels, recorded earlier this evening at London's South Bank Centre. Surrogate Cities is a Goebbels' masterpiece, a large-scale work which incorporates a wide range of musical styles, sampled sounds and texts to create an atmospheric and multi-layered portrait of a city. This Music Nation performance is a collaboration between some of the UK's finest young musicians. Heiner Goebbels: Surrogate Cities Including: D&C; In the Country of Last Things; Die Faust im Wappen; Suite for Sampler and Orchestra; The Horatian - Three Songs; Die Stadte und die Toten 4 / Argia; Surrogate David Moss (voice) Jocelyn B. Smith (mezzo-soprano) Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra's Foyle Future Firsts National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain Jonathan Stockhammer (conductor) Plus, in this week's Hear and Now Fifty, British composer Anna Meredith nominates Gerald Barry's bold and daring Piano Quartet no. 1, with commentary from an established interpreter of Barry's music, conductor Richard Baker. Gerald Barry: Piano Quartet no. 1 Noriko Kawai (piano) Nua Nos. Tom Service presents young musicians performing Heiner Goebbels Surrogate Cities. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music On The Brink | 20140111 | As part of Radio 3's Music on the Brink season featuring music on the eve of the First World War, Robert Worby interviews Italian musicologist and producer Luciano Chessa about his research into the Futurist movement of the pre-war years and his reconstructions of Luigi Russolo's noise intoners, for which he has commissioned new works by a wide range of composers including Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman and Blixa Bargeld. And Christopher Fox assesses the profound impact on experimental music today of the early 20th-century composer Erik Satie. Also tonight, Ivan Hewett introduces works by three composers selected for Sound and Music's artist development scheme Embedded. They were given the opportunity to work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra over several months in a project which culminated in a concert given last November at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. Alongside these works the orchestra performed a recent composition by Robin Holloway, commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China, and inspired by that country's vast landscapes. The programme concludes with a recording from the BBC archive and another work by Robin Holloway: Men Marching, the first of a diptych for brass band whose title comes from verse by Scottish war poet Charles Sorley. Tom Coult: Codex Benjamin Oliver: Lullaby for Joni Aaron Holloway-Nahum: The Deeper Breath to Follow Robin Holloway: In China Garry Walker (conductor) Britannia Building Society Brass Band Howard Snell (conductor) Recorded in 1990 as part of the BBC's Festival of Brass. Ivan Hewett with music by Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Benjamin Oliver and Tom Coult. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music We'd Like To Hear | 20150808 | Robert Worby presents a concert recorded recently at St Mary-at-Hill church in the City of London, part of an annual series of events curated by Music We'd Like to Hear, led by the composers John Lely and Tim Parkinson. The concert features new chamber works written and performed by some of today's leading voices in experimental music: Joanna Bailie, Stephen Chase, Sarah Hughes, Dominic Lash, Amber Priestley and Paul Whitty. Plus the latest edition of Modern Muses, Hear and Now's series in which composers and performers reflect on their collaborations, featuring the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and the Italian experimental singer Cristina Zavalloni. Joanna Bailie: On and Off 2 (2008) for 3 radios, 3 boomboxes, laptop Dominic Lash: A Wilderness of Harmony (2015) for 5 players Stephen Chase: harmoniphon vexed (2009) for 6 melodicas Sarah Hughes: Collapsed Points For Living In (2015) for solo double bass Paul Whitty: This is what happens when nothing happens (2015) for 5 players Amber Priestly: Did not feel very well at skool (31/1/1977) (2015) for 5 players Ensemble We'd Like To Hear. Robert Worby presents a concert of new works curated by Music We'd Like to Hear. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music We'd Like To Hear | 20170805 | Robert Worby introduces highlights from a recent concert promoted by Music We'd Like to Hear, a London-based collective of composer-performers. Recorded last month at St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London, it features ensemble pieces by Sarah Hughes and Nomi Epstein, and American guitarist Seth Josel playing Hauke Harder and Christian Wolff. Also in tonight's programme, a recording of David Bedford's large-scale work for electric guitars, percussion and orchestra, Star's End, marking the 80th anniversary of the composer's birth. David Bedford: Star's End Mats Bergstrom (electric guitar) Pete Wilson (bass guitar) Steve Barnard (percussion) BBC National Orchestra of Wales Edwin Outwater (conductor) Producer Philip Tagney. Robert Worby presents a recording of guitarist Seth Josel and music by David Bedford. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music We'd Like To Hear | 20181027 | Robert Worby introduces a concert given in July as part of the Music We'd Like To Hear series of new and experimental music staged at St Mary-At-Hill in the City of London. The Mark Knoop Supergroup perform works by Catherine Lamb, Robert Ashley and the rarely performed Swiss composer Hermann Meier. Catherine Lamb: nodes, various (2010) Hermann Meier: Klavierstuck 1968; Flecken (1980) Robert Ashley: Superior Seven (1988) The Mark Knoop Supergroup perform music by Hermann Meier, Catherine Lamb and Robert Ashley Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Music We'd Like To Hear, Apartment House, Pierre Henry | 20170826 | Robert Worby introduces a recent concert promoted by Music We'd Like to Hear, a London-based collective of composer-performers. Makiko Nishikaze: trio-stella Paul Newland: things that happen again (again) Tom Johnson: Predictables Alvin Lucier: Twonings Apartment House (Recorded last month at St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London) Also tonight, a tribute to the pioneer of musique concr耀te, Pierre Henry, who died recently - composer Simon Emmerson discusses his legacy. Robert Worby presents a concert by Apartment House. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Musica Viva | 20141108 | In October 1945, a few months after the end of the Second World War, Karl Amadeus Hartmann - one of the few German composers untarnished by Nazi associations - founded a contemporary music series called Musica Viva in his native city of Munich. Almost seven decades later, the series is still going strong under the auspices of Bavarian Radio. In Hear and Now this week, Ivan Hewett presents a focus on Musica Viva in conversation with its current Artistic Director Winrich Hopp, featuring four world premiere performances from recent Musica Viva concerts, including the first concert of the new season just two weeks ago. Plus Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Larry Goves for this week's episode of Composers' Rooms. Arnulf Herrmann: Three Songs at the Open Window Anja Petersen (soprano), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stefan Asbury (conductor). Gerald Barry: Piano Concerto (2012/13) Nicolas Hodges (piano), Peter Rundel (conductor). Composers' Rooms: Larry Goves Tom Johnson: Munich Rhythms Johannes Kalitzke (conductor). Harrison Birtwistle: Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano), Ivan Hewett presents a focus on Bavarian Radio's contemporary music series Musica Viva. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Musica Viva | 20170916 | Kate Molleson presents two world premieres from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's Musica Viva season, including a major new work by Wolfgang Rihm with the orchestra's Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons on the podium. Plus Sound of the Week: a new weekly feature in which a composer talks about a sound that has caught their ear and informed their music - to launch the series tonight, Irish composer/performer/conceptual artist Jennifer Walshe has chosen an old cassette recording made by her mother. Milica Djordjevic: Quicksilver (2016, world premiere) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Peter Rundel. Wolfgang Rihm: Requiem Verses (2015-16, world premiere) Mojca Erdmann (soprano), Anna Prohaska (soprano), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass-baritone), Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Mariss Jansons. Kate Molleson presents world premieres by Wolfgang Rihm and Milica Djordjevic. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Musikprotokoll 2018 | 20181117 | Tom McKinney presents music from the Austrian contemporary and experimental music festival Musikprotokoll 2018. Now in it's 51st year Musikprotokoll 2018 takes place in the UNESCO world heritage city of Graz in Austria. This year's festival includes a world premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch's 'Murales' performed by ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra & Klangforum Wien. The Austrian premiere of duo Fred Frith & B退rang耀re Maximin with an improvised performance at Dom im Berg, a venue deep in the hillside in Graz. A world premiere from Friedrich Cerha, now aged 92 but still one of the giants of contemporary Austrian music, and pieces by Jeff Weston and Chaya Czernowin. Tom McKinney presents new music from Musikprotokoll 2018. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nash Ensemble | 20090328 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert given at the Wigmore Hall, London, by the Nash Ensemble, a group considered to have been one of the UK's foremost commissioners of new music in the past 40 years, and who have premiered over 150 new works. Mark Padmore (tenor) Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Julian Anderson: Poetry Nearing Silence Michael Berkeley: Piano Quintet (world premiere) Julian Anderson: Prayer (world premiere) Huw Watkins: Trio (world premiere) Turnage: A Constant Obsession (world premiere). The Nash Ensemble premieres music by Berkeley, Watkins, Anderson and Turnage. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nash Ensemble, Simon Holt, Julian Anderson, Huw Watkins, Colin Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies | 20170429 | Tom Service presents Nash Inventions, a concert of new and recent British chamber music, played by the Nash Ensemble with conductor Martyn Brabbins. Huw Watkins: String Trio Colin Matthews: Fuga Peter Maxwell Davies: A Sea of Cold Flame (Roderick Williams, baritone) Colin Matthews: It Rains (World Premiere) (Roderick Williams, baritone) Simon Holt: Bagatelaranas (World Premiere) Julian Anderson: Van Gogh Blue (recorded at Wigmore Hall, London on 21st March) Plus, new music from the BBC Proms Inspire project. Tom Service presents a concert of new chamber music given by the Nash Ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nash Ensemble: Nash Inventions | 20150613 | Ivan Hewett presents Nash Inventions, a showcase of world premieres and Nash commissions recorded at Wigmore Hall in London in March this year. It is the final concert of the Nash Ensemble's 50th Anniversary Season and includes music by Richard Causton, Elliott Carter, Peter Maxwell Davies, Simon Holt and Julian Anderson. Plus the fifth in the series on Modern Muses explores the creative partnership between fellow Finns Magnus Lindberg and clarinettist Kari Kriikku, who first met as students. Piano Quintet (World Premi耀re) Tim Horton (piano) David Adams (violin) Michael Gurevich (violin) James Boyd (viola) Bjorg Lewis (cello) Poems of Louis Zukofsky for soprano and clarinet Claire Booth (soprano) Richard Hosford (clarinet) String Quintet (World Premi耀re) Lawrence Power (viola) Adrian Brendel (cello) MODERN MUSES 5: Magnus Lindberg and Kari Kriikku Shadow Realm Lucy Wakeford (harp) Poetry Nearing Silence Philippa Davies (flute) Elizabeth Arno (producer). Ivan Hewett presents Nash Inventions, a concert of Nash Ensemble commissions and premieres Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New British Chamber Music | 20090221 | Ivan Hewett presents a programme of new British chamber music with electronics. Jonathan Harvey: Ricercare una melodia (5:07) RedArch Duo Christopher Redgate (oboe) Paul Archbold (electronics) Redgate & Archbold: Improvisation (8:29) Jonathan Harvey: String Quartet no.1 (18:15) Arditti String Quartet (From the complete set of 4 Harvey String Quartets on the Aeon label. Due for UK release via Harmonia Mundi later in the year) Christopher Fox: Broadway Boogie (8.00) Package - rediscovery of Birtwistle's Chronometer (interviews with Lieven Bertels, who tracked down the only surviving 4-track tape of Chronometer & got it remastered for CD/DVD; and with Peter Zinovieff, one of the pioneers of British electronic music, who 'realised' this piece according to Birtwistle's instructions) Harrison Birtwistle: Chronometer (extracts) Harrison Britwistle / Peter Zinovieff From the CD/DVD Recovery / Discovery' (SAM 0801) Edwin Roxburgh: At the Still Point of the Turning World (15:05) James Weeks: Burnham Air (11:49) Ivan Hewett presents new British chamber music with electronics. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New British Orchestral Scores | 20080906 | The BBC Philharmonic conducted by James MacMillan play scores chosen by the Society for the Promotion of New Music Charlie Usher: Rothko Monody Chris Litherland: Funferall Brian Noyes: Points of Decision Christian Mason: . . . from bursting suns escaping. . . Symon Clarke: Statue Circle Visit the Hear and Now homepage to read Programme Notes for both of these concerts. The BBC Philharmonic scores chosen by the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New French Music | 20110430 | Tom Service is joined by British composer Julian Anderson to discuss a selection of twenty-first century French music Philippe Hurel: Flashback Gilbert Amy: L'espace du souffle Yves Chauris: .solitude, r退cif, 退toile. J退r䀀me Combier: Gris Cendre BBC National Orchestra of Wales Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor) G退rard Pesson: Cassation Ensemble Modern. Tom Service is joined by British composer Julian Anderson to discuss recent French music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New From Finland | 20080712 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert recorded at Maida Vale Studios in October 2007, featuring new music for orchestra and solo piano by Finnish composers. Jaakko Kuusisto (violin) Paavali Jumppanen (piano) BBC Symphony Orchestra Susanna Malkki (conductor) Veli-Matti Puumala: Chains of Camenae Uljas Pulkkis: Enchanted Garden Lauri Kilpio: Strata Jukka Tiensuu: Soma Kimmo Hakola: Maro. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music for orchestra and solo piano by Finnish composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Italian Music | 20090801 | Tom Service explores new Italian music with Ed McKeon, featuring recent performances of Gervasoni, Sciarrino and Casale by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Nono and Castiglioni by vocal ensemble Exaudi. Music includes: Gervasoni: Sensibile Tito Ceccherini (conductor) Nono: Sara dolce tacere James Weeks (director) Casale: A Victor Hugo Daza Castiglioni: Hymne Sciarrino: I fuochi oltre la ragione Tito Ceccherini (conductor). Tom Service explores new Italian music with Ed McKeon. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music 20x12 | 20120421 | Robert Worby introduces a world premiere by Birtwistle, and three new pieces commissioned for New Music 20X12, inspired by the Olympics, and performed as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Harrison Birtwistle: Fantasia Upon All The Notes Nash Ensemble conducted by Lionel Friend Anna Meredith: HandsFree National Youth Orchestra Sally Beamish: Spinal Chords Juliet Stevenson (narrator) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment directed by Matthew Truscott Luke Carver Goss: Pure Gold: a 4X4 Relay Race Ian McMillan (narrator) Manchester Chorale Black Dyke Band Colin Matthews: The Island Claire Booth (soprano) Nash Ensemble conducted by Lionel Friend. Robert Worby with new music by Birtwistle, Matthews, Meredith, Beamish and Carver Goss. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music Biennial | 20170701 | Staged by the PRS for Music Foundation in association with BBC Radio 3 and to coincide with Hull UK City of Culture 2017, the New Music Biennial showcases new and recent works from a wide range of composers and commissioners in two special events over consecutive weekends, in venues across Hull and London's Southbank Centre. Tonight's programme includes some of the twenty works featured, in recordings made at various locations over the first two days of the Hull event. The programme is presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and broadcast live from Fruit, a venue in the heart of Hull's cultural quarter. GoGo Penguin: As Above So Below, commissioned by J-Night Jazz Promoters Gavin Bryars: Winestead, commissioned by Opera North Anna Meredith: Concerto for beatboxer and orchestra, commissioned by Southbank Centre Laurence Crane: Pieces About Art, commissioned by EXAUDI Daniel Elms: Bethia, commissioned by British Film Institute. Live from Fruit in Hull, Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music from the New Music Biennial. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music Biennial 2017 | 20170715 | Staged by the PRS for Music Foundation in association with BBC Radio 3 and to coincide with Hull City of Culture 2017, the New Music Biennial showcases new and recent works from a wide range of composers and commissioners in two special events over consecutive weekends, in venues across Hull and London's Southbank Centre. Tonight's programme, presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, includes some of the twenty works featured, in recordings made both in Hull and at the Southbank Centre, London, including music by Mark Simpson, Mica Levi and James McVinnie and Darkstar. Everlast (commissioned by BBC Concert Orchestra) Andre de Ridder (conductor) Eliza Carthy Rivers and Railways (commissioned by Freedom Festival) Eliza Carthy (vocals) The Moulettes After Avedon - Piano Trio (commissioned by Gould Piano Trio) Brian Irvine and Jennifer Walshe 13 Vices (commissioned by Moving On Music) Jennifer Walshe (vocals) Dance Unity (commissioned by James McVinnie) James McVinnie (organ) Darkstar (electronics) Philip Venables and David Hoyle Illusions (commissioned by London Sinfonietta) David Hoyle (performance artist) London Sinfonietta. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents highlights from the New Music Biennial 2017 in Hull and London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music From Iceland | 20150103 | A survey of some of the exciting new work emanating from Reykjav퀀k and the far north, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is conducted by principal guest conductor Ilan Volkov, who is also chief conductor and music director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Gudmundur Steinn Gunnarsson Sporgýla (World Premiere) Anna Thorvaldsd ttir Aeriality (UK Premiere) David Brynjar Franzson on Matter and Materiality' for cello and orchestra Charles Ross His Master?s Voice Thrကinn Hjကlmarsson As heard across a room Hlynur Adils Vilmarsson bd Severine Ballon [cello] Ilan Volkov [conductor]. New music from Iceland with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music From Japan | 20130202 | Robert Worby introduces a programme of new music from Japan, highlights from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's event Total Immersion: Sounds from Japan, which took place in London at the Barbican Centre and LSO St Luke's earlier in the day. He's joined by the composer Dai Fujikura whose work Atom receives its UK premiere. Akira Nishimura: Bird Heterophony (UK Premiere) Misato Mochizuki: Musubi (UK Premiere) Toru Takemitsu: November Steps (UK Premiere) Kifu Mitsuhashi (shakuhachi); Kumiko Shuto (biwa) BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazushi Ono Jo Kondo: Surface, Depth and Colour (UK Premiere) Guildhall Chamber Ensemble conducted by Sian Edwards Dai Fujikura: Atom (European Premiere) Toshio Hosokawa: Woven Dreams (UK Premiere) BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazushi Ono. New music from Japan performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music From The North | 20131005 | Ivan Hewett presents new music from the Nordic countries, with more highlights from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion event New from the North and the first London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music, in performances by Nordic Voices, Bit20, Vertavo Quartet, and the BBC Singers. Jouni Kaipainen: String Quartet No 6, 'The Terror Run' (BBC Commission, UK premiere) Cecile Ore: Schwirren (UK premiere) Arne Nordheim: Response IV BIT20 Percussion Esa-Pekka Salonen: Kiss my mouth (Two Songs from 'Kalender R怀d', no. 1) Per Norgard: Wie ein Kind Conductor James Morgan Kaija Saariaho: Terra Memoria Vertavo Quartet. Ivan Hewett with new music from the Nordic countries: Ore, Nordheim, Kaipainen, Saariaho. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music From Wales | 20180217 | Tom McKinney presents new music from the BBC NOW Composer-in-Association Huw Watkins. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music From Witten | 20180811 | Tom McKinney presents music from 2018 Witten Days for New Chamber Music Festival Every year musicians and music lovers from all around the world gather in the Germany city of Witten for this international festival of contemporary music. Since 1969, the festival Witten Days for New Chamber Music has been setting the mark for what is new in contemporary music and has become a meeting point for avant-garde music, connoisseurs and music lovers. For the past five decades many important musical works have been heard in Witten for the very first time. Tom McKinney presents music from the 2018 Witten Days for New Chamber Music festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music In China | 20080621 | Robert Worby reports from Shanghai on the range of new music being made in this rapidly-expanding metropolis. In tune with the city's futuristic skyline, he finds much of the musical creativity in electronic sounds, both in the lavishly-funded hi-tech E-Arts Festival, and in the thriving underground 'noise' scene. Robert discovers the earliest Chinese electronic music in the archives of the Conservatory and finds composers such as Chen Qiangbin combining traditional Chinese instruments with electronic sounds. He also attends an underground gig featuring Porn Moon Twins. Part of Radio 3's Focus on China season. Robert Worby reports from Shanghai on the range of new music being made there. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music North West | 20180120 | Tom McKinney presents a concert by the BBC Philharmonic and Psappha ensemble, part of New Music North West, a festival showcasing talented British composers from the north west of England. Mario Duarte: Metztli Grace-Evangeline Mason: Kintsukuroi (Golden Repair) Daniel Kidane: Sirens Laura Bowler: 3811 Nautical Miles Larry Goves: hollow yellow willow (world premiere) David Horne: Resonating Instruments Tom Coult: Two Games and a Nocturne Mark Heron (conductor) Also tonight: Sound of the Week: composer Alwynne Pritchard describes a particular sound that has inspired her own compositions. Tom McKinney presents new music from the north west of England. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music North West Festival 2016 | 20160206 | Tom McKinney presents music from a concert recorded in Salford last month as part of the New Music North West Festival and including four world premieres of orchestral music. Yvonne Eccles: Relentless Continuum Robin Walker: Prelude to Odysseus on Ogygia Ben Parker: Treading Water Adam Gorb: In Solitude, For Company BBC Philharmonic Clark Rundell (conductor) James Wishart: The Leaving of Liverpool Anthony Gilbert: Moonfaring Mark Simpson: Ariel Psappha. Tom McKinney presents music from the 2016 New Music North West festival in Manchester. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Music, By Young Composers | 20120512 | Ivan Hewett presents new music for orchestra by young composers, including works developed through Embedded residencies with the BBC Symphony Orchestra: Yuko Ohara: Kaleidoscope Laura Bowler: Irresistible Demands Of The Flesh BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Garry Walker and from an LPO Debut Sounds concert: Emily Wright: Incantation Erik Flores: Foliage London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Clement Power Plus in this week's Hear And Now Fifty, Gillian Moore advocates George Benjamin's At First Light, a chamber orchestral score of extraordinary detail and skill; while Paul Griffiths describes the significance of the work as a benchmark for British composing. Ivan Hewett presents new music for orchestra by young composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Orchestral Music From Darmstadt Summer School | 20181103 | Kate Molleson presents a concert from the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music 2018: Bara Gisladottir: VAPE Sarah Nemtsov: dropped.drowned Simon Steen-Anderson: Piano Concerto Nicolas Hodges (piano) Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Baldur Bronnimann Sound of the Week: Thomas Larcher. The Austrian composer, pianist and keen mountaineer talks about a sound he encounters high in the Tyrol mountains. Plus an appreciation of Naresh Sohal, who died earlier this year. Naresh Sohal: Violin Concerto Xue Wei (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Kate Molleson presents a concert from the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music 2018. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Releases | 20141011 | Tom Service dips into recent releases of new music chosen by composer-performer Kerry Andrew and vocalist Elaine Mitchener, ranging from the jazz-improv of the McCormack & Yarde Duo and the anarchic soundscape of Vicious circus, to the contrasting vocal textures of Luca Francesconi and David Lang. In Composers' Rooms the Cambridge home of Robin Holloway is the latest destination for Sara Mohr-Pietsch. Together, she and the distinguished composer, teacher and writer rootle around his workspace. Plus, leading contemporary music saxophonist Marcus Weiss plays James Tenney's 'Saxony', recorded live in May at Glasgow's Tectonics festival. Tom Service presents new releases, plus James Tenney's Saxony for saxophone and tape. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Releases | 20161029 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Kerry Andrew discuss their choices of new releases, including works by Mica Levi and Olly Coates, James Weeks, John de Simone, Ondrej Adamek, Grainne Mulvey, and Kaitlyn Aurelia-Smith and Suzanne Cianni. Sara Mohr-Pietsch (presenter) XHill Stepping Digger Alastair Putt (guitar) Misremembrance Robert Irvine (cello) Endless steps Orchester der Lucerne Festival Academy Pierre Boulez (director) Phonology Garden Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano) Closed Circuit. Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Kerry Andrew discuss new releases from Mica Levi to Ondrej Adamek. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Releases | 20171104 | Composer, performer and director Neil Luck joins presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch to review some new and recent releases from the world of new music. Plus the last in a series of features celebrating 40 years of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival through archive recordings. In 'Beyond Notes', Andrew Kurowski selects music by Christian Marclay and Simon Steen Andersen, in conversation with Robert Worby. Christian Marclay: Graffiti Composition (excerpt) Apartment House, recorded 2011 Simon Steen-Andersen: String Quartet No.2 Bozzini Quartet, recorded 2012. Sara Mohr-Pietsch reviews the latest new music releases with guest Neil Luck. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Works: Ulster Orchestra | 20150207 | Ivan Hewett presents new works played by the Ulster Orchestra, including Deirdre McKay's Meltwater and her opera Driven, plus Ian Wilson's Sullen Earth for violin and orchestra. Ivan Hewett also showcases the first in our series of prize-winning pieces recorded BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers' Competition - this week with pieces by Freddie Meyers and Sarah Gait. And Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the Irish composer, Jennifer Walshe, in the latest edition of Composer's Rooms. David Brophy (conductor) Robin Tritschler (tenor) In a Solitude of the Sea Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra COMPOSER'S ROOM: Jennifer Walshe Ioana Petcu-Colan (violin) Dark Ocean Lights STEVE REICH Music for Pieces of Wood Guildhall Percussion. Ivan Hewett presents new works played by the Ulster Orchestra. With Deirdre McKay's Driven Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
New Year, New Music | 20190105 | New Year New Music BBC Radio 3 celebrates new music at the beginning of the new year as ten of the station's presenters champion the music they love written in the last ten years. Ten works by composers including Larry Goves, Cassandra Miller, Gavin Bryars and George Benjamin are advocated by ten presenters including Sarah Walker, Tom Service, Elizabeth Alker, Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Andrew McGregor. George Benjamin: Written on Skin (Act 1 Scenes 5 & 6) Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Benjamin Larry Goves: Hollow yellow willow for orchestra BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Heron Gavin Bryars: Credo from the Worcester Ladymass Trio Mediaeval Cassandra Miller: Duet for cello and orchestra Charles Curtis (cello) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Hans Abrahamsen: I will go out now' from Let Me Tell You Barbara Hannigan (soprano) Bavarian Radio Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons Edmund Finnis: Elsewhere Daniel Pioro (violin) James MacMillan: Stabat Mater The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia conducted by Harry Christophers Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Aeriality Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Gerald Barry: The Importance of Being Earnest Act 1 excerpt BCMG conducted by Thomas Ades Kerry Andrew: Apples, Plums, Cherries Juice vocal ensemble Radio 3 presenters champion the new music they love. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nico Muhly | 20100417 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch, in conversation with Nico Muhly, presents a concert of his music and a piece by a composer he admires, Steve Reich. Young firebrand New Yorker Nico Muhly is one of the most exciting and diverse composers around today. He has written and performed with major orchestras in the USA and UK, and collaborated with artists including Björk and Sigur Rós. Nico Muhly: Step Team (18:17) Trad. arr. Muhly: Saro; You Better Mind (6:38) Sam Amidon and Beth Orton (vocals) Nico Muhly: By All Means (9:13) Nico Muhly: The Only Tune (15:41) Sam Amidon (vocals) Steve Reich: City Life (14:14) Britten Sinfonia conducted by Nicholas Collon and Nico Muhly. Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to composer Nico Muhly and presents a concert of his music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nordic Music Days With The Riot Ensemble | 20171007 | Nordic Music Days - contemporary music from Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway. Robert Worby hears from some of the composers whose music was performed at last Saturday's late night 'Floral Night Episode' concert at London's South Bank Centre.Robert is joined too by The Riot Ensemble's artistic director, Aaron Holloway-Nahum. Saariaho: Terrestre for flute & ensemble Djuro Zivkovic: On the guarding of the heart Ole Lützow-Holm: Floral night episode for soprano & ensemble(UK premiere) Ruben Sverre Gjertsen: Collideorscape(UK premiere) Bကra G퀀slad ttir: Suzuki Baleno (UK premiere) plus Maja S K Ratkje: Gagaku Variations (2001) for string quartet and accordion Frode Haltli (accordion), Quatuor Bozzini. Nordic Music Days - music from Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway with The Riot Ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Northern Lights: Emily Hall, John Luther Adams | 20151219 | As part of Radio 3's Northern Lights season, Robert Worby and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present new music by the British composer Emily Hall, inspired by and incorporating recordings from a trip to the most northerly part of the UK, the Shetland isle of Unst. American composer John Luther Adams talks to Tom McKinney about his recent work Ilimaq, an electro-acoustic collaboration with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, evoking the northern territories of Alaska in North America. And continuing our coverage of this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the group Apartment House perform John Cage's Hymnkus, whose title combines the words hymn and haikus, reflecting of the work's construction. Robert Worby and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present new music by Emily Hall and John Luther Adams. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Noszferatu, Alexander Von Schlippenbach Trio | 20140125 | Tom Service introduces a concert by Noszferatu and the Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio, performing compositions specially created for this double ensemble, in a programme exploring the crossover between written and improvised music. The concert was recorded in November at the London Jazz Festival and includes a solo set from Noszferatu featuring music by its founding members Dave Price and Finn Peters. Plus he UK premiere of German composer Charlotte Seither's choral work Haut Terrain and Ligeti's String Quartet No.2, both recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Dave Price: Lee Games Finn Peters: 43 Dave Price: Twitcher Gyorgy Ligeti: String Quartet No.2 Diotima Quartet Charlotte Seither: Haut Terrain BBC Singers/Nicholas Kok Joe Cutler: Flexible Music Hans Koller: Eins, Zwei, Drei, Tier Hanna Kulenty: Smokey Eyes Noszferatu: Ivo de Greef (piano); Finn Peters (saxophones, flute); Damien Harron (percussion) Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio: Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano); Evan Parker (saxophones); Paul Lovens (percussion). Noszferatu and the Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio play at the 2013 London Jazz Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Nouvelle Vague | 20180310 | Tom McKinney introduces a programme which introduces some of the next generation of British composers, several of whom featured in a recent concert given in St Michael's Ancoats, Manchester, given by Psappha as part of their young composer mentoring scheme '.... Composing For'. As well as new works by new composers, Psappha's programme also included a performance of music by Charlotte Bray. Emma Wilde: 'El Hilo del Tiempo Luke Carver Goss (amplified accordion and effects) Royal Northern Sinfonia conducted by Jack Sheen Will Frampton: 'The Greening Variations Psappha - Benedict Holland (violin) Jennifer Langridge (cello) Benjamin Powell (piano) James Williamson: Fault-Klang Dov Goldberg (bass clarinet) Lucy Armstrong - 'Space Adventure Robert Reid Allan: 'The Palace of Light Bethan Morgan-Williams: 'In Kenopsia Tony Boorer (trombone) Bethan Morgan-Williams (live electronics) Michael Cryne: 'In Cloud Light Conrad Marshall (alto flute) Jack Sheen: 'Found Lore Lixenberg (mezzo soprano) Members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia Joanna Ward: 'to think at the sun Quinta (violin) Members of Royal Northern Sinfonia Charlotte Bray: 'Caught In Treetops' (2010) Benedict Holland (solo violin) Conrad Marshall (flute) Mana Shibata (oboe) Dov Goldberg (clarinet) Andrew Budden (horn) David Hooper (trumpet) Lauren Scott (harp) Tim Williams (percussion) Susi Meszaros (viola) Jennifer Langridge (cello). Tom McKinney focuses on some of the next generation of British composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Olga Neuwirth, American Lulu | 20140201 | Tom Service introduces a recording of Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth's American Lulu, recorded at the Young Vic in London last September. Neuwirth's re-working of Alban Berg's opera sets the story amid the civil rights struggle of 1950s New Orleans and 1970s New York. Tom Service is joined by singer Jacqui Dankworth who plays Eleanor, a role based on the original character of Countess Geschwitz. Angel Blue (Lulu) Robert Winslade Anderson (Clarence) Donald Maxwell (Dr Bloom) Jonathan Stoughton (Jimmy) Jacqui Dankworth (Eleanor) Paul Curievici (Photographer/Young Man Simon Wilding (Athlete) Paul Reeves (Professor/Banker/Police Commissioner London Sinfonietta Gerry Cornelius (conductor). Tom Service introduces Olga Neuwirth's American Lulu performed at the Young Vic in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Olga Neuwirth, Luigi Nono | 20120218 | Robert Worby presents UK premieres of works by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth including her tribute to the late Klaus Nomi, countertenor and cult performance artist. And in this week's instalment of the Hear and Now Fifty, theatre director Katie Mitchell describes her first encounter with the music of Luigi Nono and subsequent staging of his opera Al gran sole carico d'amore. With commentary from conductor Richard Bernas. Olga Neuwirth: Five Daily Miniatures Olga Neuwirth: ...miramondo multiplo... Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore (Act 2 excerpt) Olga Neuwirth: Hommage a Klaus Nomi (excerpts) Andrew Watts, countertenor Alistair Mackie, solo trumpet London Sinfonietta Garry Walker and Gerry Cornelius, conductors. Robert Worby presents UK premieres of works by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Oliver Knussen | 20130209 | Oliver Knussen talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about a career that has taken him from wunderkind to internationally renowned composer and conductor. This selection of his music, spanning four decades, was recorded at last year's Total Immersion weekend at the Barbican celebrating Knussen's sixtieth birthday. Flourish With Fireworks Choral, Op.8 Whitman Settings, Op.25a Horn Concerto, Op.28 Requiem - Songs for Sue, Op.33 Symphony No.3, Op.18 Claire Booth, soprano Martin Owen, horn BBC Symphony Orchestra Oliver Knussen, conductor. Oliver Knussen conducts his own works, including Choral, Requiem and Symphony No 3. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Open Ear, Alexander's Annexe, Abstrukt Ensemble, Laura Cannell, Ipek Gorgun | 20180224 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an Open Ear concert of cutting-edge new music recorded in the round at LSO St Luke's in London last month. Experimental trio Alexander's Annexe reformed specially for this concert (Sarah Nicholls on inside-out piano, and Mira Calix and David Sheppard on electronics). Abstruckt is a percussion quartet, Ipek Gorgun (from Istanbul) performs her live electronic music in her UK concert debut, and Laura Cannell plays her own music on violin and recorders. Part 1: Alexander's Annexe: Pull It Walley Gunn: Vicious Children Abstruckt Ensemble Ipek Gorgun: Fata Morgana Laura Cannell: Three Stones/Cathedral of the Marshes Alexander's Annexe: Tear It Part 2: Ipek Gorgun: improvised live set Laura Cannell: Interrelation of Diverse Emotions The Happiness of Both Worldes Eliot Cole: 3 Postludes Alexander's Annexe: Say It. A concert with Alexander's Annexe, Abstruckt Ensemble, Ipek Gorgun and Laura Cannell. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Open Ear, Cutting-edge New Music Performed In The Round | 20190330 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch hosts an Open Ear concert of cutting-edge new music from LSO St Luke's in London. Na'ama Zisser: Drowned In C LCO conducted by Hugh Brunt Cassandra Miller: For Mira Mira Benjamin (violin) Lisa Illean: A through-grown earth (World Premiere) Juliet Fraser (soprano) and pre-recorded sound Native Instrument: live electronics performance David Fennessy: Changeless + The Changed Zara Benyounes (violin) and Reinoud Ford (cello) Rebecca Saunders: O Amber Priestley: "...and go ahead! Dare to be irrational!" with stereo playback Angelica Negron: This Person Open Ear concert from LSO St Luke's. LCO, Juliet Fraser, Native Instrument, Mire Benjamin. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Open Ear: Exaudi, We Spoke, Sarah Angliss, Gwen Rouger | 20180915 | Tom Service presents an Open Ear concert of cutting-edge new music recorded in the round at LSO St Luke's in London, featuring percussion quartet We Spoke, vocal ensemble Exaudi, pianist Gwen Rouger, and the electronic music of Sarah Angliss. Part 1: Amber Priestley: Help with Adverbs Sarah Nemtsov: Seven thoughts - her kind (World Premiere) Gwen Rouger (sampler keyboard & vocal) Fritz Hauser: As We Are Speaking We Spoke percussion ensemble Sarah Angliss: set 1 (music from the album Ealing Feeder) Sarah Angliss: acoustic instruments and live electronics Stephen Hiscock: percussion Simon Loeffler: `b" Part 2: Lorenzo Pagliei: Corpi Celesti Exaudi, directed by James Weeks Sarah Angliss: set 2 (music from the album Ealing Feeder) Petra Strahovnik: ? Michael Oesterle: all words Rapha뀀l Languillat: La flagellation du Christ Gwen Rouger (amplified piano) An Open Ear concert of new music, with We Spoke, Exaudi, Gwen Rouger, and Sarah Angliss Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Open Ear: The Hermes Experiment, Apartment House, Severine Ballon, Joseph Havlat | 20180922 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an Open Ear concert of cutting-edge new music recorded in the round at LSO St Luke's in London, featuring The Hermes Experiment, Apartment House, cellist Severine Ballon and pianist Joseph Havlat. Part 1 Meredith Monk: Double Fiesta Severine Ballon: Paroles Severine Ballon (cello) William Marsey: a selection from Dutch Interior Subjects Joseph Havlat (piano, celeste, toy piano) Josephine Stephenson: Tanka Adrian Demo?: Modr退 Kvety (Les Fleurs Bleues) Part 2 Oliver Leith: Grinding-Bust-Turning Chaya Czernowin: Songs of the Muted One S退verine Ballon (cello) Joel Rust: Pack of Orders Seကn Clancy: Four Pieces of Music Lasting Thirty Seconds Each Joseph Havlat (toy piano) Gerald Barry: Triorchic Blues Joseph Havlat (piano) Julius Aglinskas: String Quartet Open Ear concert with The Hermes Experiment, Apartment House and Severine Ballon Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Per Norgard | 20090523 | Ivan Hewett travels to Copenhagen to hear the world premiere of celebrated Danish composer Per Norgard's Seventh Symphony. Recorded at the new, Jean Nouvel-designed Danish Radio Concert Hall, Norgard's work marks another phase in his compositional journey. Norgard explains the dream that inspired him to compose, the importance of 'interference' in his work and his struggle to compose music that he has never yet heard. Per Nørgård - Symphony No.3: First movement Danish National Symphony Orchestra Thomas Dausgaard (conductor) DACAPO 60220547 Track 1 Per Nørgård - Voyage into the Golden Screen ?? extract Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra Giordano Bellincampi (conductor) DACAPO 8.226014 Track 11 Per Nørgård - Symphony No.4: Indian Rose Garden and Chinese Witch Sea (1981) 2nd Movement ?? extract Leif Segerstam (conductor) CHANDOS CHAN 9533 Tr ? Per Nørgård - Cello Concerto: Between 1st movement Morten Zeuthen (cello) Jorma Panula (conductor) DACAPO DCCD 9002 Track 3 Per Nørgård - String Quartet No.10 (Harvest Timeless) The Kroger Quartet DACAPO 80226059 Track 12 Per Nørgård - Symphony No.7 EBU Tape Ivan Hewett presents a profile of Danish composer Per Norgard. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Peter Maxwell Davies | 20160917 | Tom Service plays tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, with composers Sally Beamish, Rolf Hind and Alasdair Nicolson. In addition to music from Maxwell Davies's discography, the Behn Quartet give the broadcast premiere of Maxwell Davies's final work, 'Movement for String Quartet', which is believed to have been completed in January this year. Rolf Hind talks about Maxwell Davies's piano music, plays part of his Piano Sonata No.1 and gives the world premiere of his own tribute piece to Maxwell Davies, 'The Dark Hug of Time', which is co-commissioned by sound and the University of Aberdeen. Elizabeth Arno (producer). Tom Service pays tribute to Peter Maxwell Davies with Sally Beamish and Alasdair Nicolson. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Peter Maxwell Davies At 80 | 20141101 | Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the former Master of the Queen's Music whose dozen-plus string quartets, ten numbered symphonies and numerous concertos make up just a fraction of a prolific output, might be mistaken for a conventional establishment figure. But there is nothing conventional about Max (as he's generally known). There's the sheer quality and variety of over five decades' worth of work coupled to an unflinching social conscience for one thing; the mischievous, kick-against-the-pricks twinkle in his eye, for another. In an engaging interview Tom Service talks to Max, who turned eighty this year, about some of the preoccupations of his long and distinguished career. Plainsong, sixteenth century English music and the inspiration he draws from the unspoiled natural beauty of his Orkney home are reflected in music recorded for this special edition of Hear and Now by the BBC Philharmonic and Radio 3 New Generation Artist, guitarist Sean Shibe. The programme ends with a classic recording of one of Max's major works from the sixties, his Second Fantasia on John Taverner's 'In Nomine', one of a number of works whose apparent complexity and dissonance perplexed orchestras and and generated no little hostility. 'These days,' says Max, 'those pieces seem so lyrical. There' s no problem: people just play them as a piece of music and enjoy it. It's worth living to eighty to get that kind of reaction! Plus, in her series Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits George Benjamin. Peter Maxwell Davies: Overture, St Francis of Assisi The Fall of the Leafe Last Door of Light HK Gruber, conductor Hill Runes Sean Shibe, guitar New Philharmonia Orchestra Charles Groves, conductor. Peter Maxwell Davies talks to Tom Service about his long and prolific career. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Peteris Vasks, Vale Of Glamorgan Festival | 20160618 | Ivan Hewett explores some recent compositions by Peteris Vasks who turned seventy in April this year. Vasks music is often tinged with an elegiac nostalgia for his homeland. It often incorporates folklore elements, placing them within a dynamic and challenging relationship with the language of contemporary music. The recordings were all made at the recent Vale of Glamorgan Festival and its director, John Metcalf joins Ivan this evening. Peteris Vasks was a guest at the festival and was present at the world premiere of a new viola concerto for former Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Maxim Rysanov, a work featuring two cadenzas in a Bach-like vein. Cantabile Sala Symphonic Elegy (UK Premiere) Viola Concerto (BBC Radio 3 co-commission - World Premiere) Maxim Rysanov (viola) BBC National Orchestra of Wales Edwin Outwater (conductor) Modern Muses Oliver Knussen and soprano Claire Booth talk about their collaboration on Knussen's deeply felt Requiem " Songs for Sue. plus Horatiu Radulescu Piano Sonata No 2, Op 82 "being and non-being create each other" Stephen Clarke (piano). Ivan Hewett introduces compositions by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Philip Glass, Anthony Braxton And Friends | 20170128 | Kate Molleson presents music by iconic American composers Philip Glass and Anthony Braxton. To launch the programme there are highlights from today's Philip Glass Total Immersion day at the Barbican in London, featuring pianists Robert Allan and Ben Smith playing some of Glass's piano Etudes and movements from Glassworks, and choral works from the BBC Singers and conductor Tecwyn Evans. Plus a BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra concert focusing on polymath composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton: Ilan Volkov conducts world premieres of two of Braxton's closest collaborators, James Fei and Taylor Ho Bynum, framed by the UK premieres of Braxton's own 1970s Compositions Nos 27 and 63. Kate Molleson presents music by American composers Philip Glass and Anthony Braxton. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Philip Glass's The Trial | 20141025 | Presented by Tom Service Philip Glass's new opera The Trial, specifically created for Music Theatre Wales and recorded at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio Theatre. Written by Glass in collaboration with the playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, The Trial is based on the 1925 novel of Franz Kafka. It tells the story of Josef K, a bank employee who is arrested on an unspecified charge on his 30th birthday and forced to defend his innocence, and ultimately journeys towards a violent death. Amanda Forbes -. Fraulein Burstner/ Leni Frau Rowan Hellier - Grubach/ Washerwoman Paul Curievici - Titorelli/ Flogger/ Student Michael Bennett - Franz/ Block Johnny Herford - Josef K Gwion Thomas - Magistrate/ Assistant/ Lawyer Nicholas Folwell - Willem/ Usher/ Clerk/ Priest Michael Druiett - Inspector/ Uncle Conductor Michael Rafferty Music Theatre Wales Ensemble. Philip Glass's new opera The Trial performed by the Music Theatre Wales Ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Philip Venables, 4.48 Psychosis | 20180630 | Tom Service presents Philip Venables' opera 4.48 Psychosis (based on a play by Sarah Kane), a Royal Opera House production recorded at the Lyric Hammersmith in April. Gweneth Ann Rand, Lucy Hall, Susanna Hurrell (sopranos) Lucy Schaufer, Samantha Price, Rachael Lloyd (mezzo-sopranos) Chroma Ensemble with Sarah Hatch and Louise Goodwin (percussion) Music Director: Richard Baker 4:48 Psychosis was the final work of the radical British playwright Sarah Kane, first performed posthumously in 2000. Detailing the experience of clinical depression, the play harrowingly reveals, through poetry, anger and dark humour, an individual's struggle to come to terms with their own psychosis, the numbers in the title referring to the time in the early morning when clarity and bleak despair strike together. In Philip Venables' new operatic adaptation of Kane's play, directed by Ted Huffman, the search for love and happiness and the struggle for identity are explored through a fusion of opera with spoken text. Tom Service presents Philip Venables's opera, 4.48 Psychosis. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Philip Venables, Helga Arias Parra, Wolfgang Von Schweinitz | 20181013 | Kate Molleson introduces music performed by the Riot Ensemble and recorded last month at Kings Place London. Lee Hyla's raucous We Speak Etruscan is a piece that imagines a new (fake) language, spoken by a heavily amplified bass clarinet and baritone sax; Helga Arias Parra's meditative Incipit is derived from a quote of Pergolesi which only emerges in its dying moments; and Sarah Nemstov's Central Park sits alongside Venable's numbers 91-95, a setting of words Simon Howard. Also, music recorded at the Book of Hours Festival in Co. Louth during the summer. Wolfgang von Schweinitz's KLANG is a hallucinatory work for string trio and ring modulator performed by Flemish (string trio) Goeyvaerts Trio. Music by Philip Venables, Helga Arias Parra and Wolfgang von Schweinitz Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Picking Up The Pieces | 20151031 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents this week's programme which was recorded earlier this month at the Forge in London's Camden. Irish musicians Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea give a recital of new and recent music for violin and piano titled "Picking up the Pieces". Much of the music has been written especially for the duo and will include Richard Causton's "Seven States of Rain", which is dedicated to Mary and Darragh and was winner of the first ever British Composers' Award. They will also give the world premiere of a new work by Irish composer Gerarld Barry, which is titled "Midday.". Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea perform new and recent music for violin and piano. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Pierre Boulez Celebration, Louis Andriessen | 20111015 | Tom Service presents music from the Southbank Centre's celebration of composer Pierre Boulez who has been one of the most influential figures of the musical avant-garde for the past sixty years. Plus the 'Hear and Now Fifty'. The fifth in the series of signal works from the second half of the twentieth century is Louis Andriessen's 1976 exploration of the relationship between music and politics, De Staat. A key example of European minimalism - with echoes of Stan Kenton and Count Basie - discussed by fellow Dutch composer Michel van der Aa and the South Bank's Head of Contemporary Culture, Gillian Moore. Boulez: Notations i-xii Pierre Laurent Aimard (piano) Boulez: Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble Susanna M䀀lkki (conductor) Louis Andriessen: De Staat Claron McFadden, Barbara Borden, Yvonne Benschop, Ananda Goud (voices) Sch怀nberg Ensemble Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor). Tom Service presents music from the Southbank Centre's celebration of Pierre Boulez. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Pierre Boulez Tribute | 20160326 | The great composer and conductor Pierre Boulez died in January this year. In tonight's Hear and Now, on the anniversary of Boulez's birthday, Ivan Hewett presents a special edition devoted to some of the recordings Boulez made at the BBC. Le Marteau sans matre - Bel 退difice et les pressentiments (first version) Jan DeGaetani (mezzo), Marie-Therese Ghirardi (guitar), members of the BBC SO Pli selon pli - Don Halina Lukomska (soprano), members of BBC SO, Pierre Boulez (conductor) Pli selon Pli - Improvisation I sur Mallarm退 Phyllis Bryn-Julson (soprano), members of the BBC SO, Pierre Boulez (conductor) RItuel in memoriam Bruno Maderna BBC commission (1975) Cummings ist der dichter BBC Singers, BBC SO, Pierre Boulez (conductor) Le soleil des eaux Phyllis Bryn-Julson (soprano), BBC Singers, BBC SO, Pierre Boulez Le Visage nuptial Phyllis Bryn-Julson (soprano), Elizabetrh Laurence (mezzo), BBC Singers, BBC SO, Pierre Boulez (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents a tribute to the late composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Plus Minus, Xenakis | 20111022 | Robert Worby introduces a concert by the ensemble Plus Minus themed around the idea of repetition, recorded at King's Place in London earlier this month. And in the latest instalment of the 'Hear and Now Fifty', mathemetician Marcus du Sautoy explains the principles of group theory behind the composition of Nomos Alpha by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. With commentary from the writer Paul Griffiths. Aldo Clementi: Madrigale Simon Steen-Andersen: Study for String Instrument No.1 Morton Feldman: Bass Clarinet and Percussion Philip Glass: Music in Contrary Motion Alvin Lucier: I Am Sitting in a Room Iannis Xenakis: Nomos Alpha Pierre Strauch (cello). Plus Minus in Aldo Clementi, Simon Steen Anderson, Feldman, Glass and Lucier. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Poul Ruders, Pelle Gudmundsen-holmgreen | 20140308 | Presented by Ivan Hewett. Ivan Hewett introduces music by Danish composers Poul Ruders and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, from a recent concert given at the Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard. Plus a roundup of recent contemporary music releases, with cellist Zoe Martlew and composer Gabriel Prokofiev. Poul Ruders: Kafkapriccio Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Symphony-Antiphony Thomas Sondergard (conductor). Ivan Hewett introduces music by Poul Ruders and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Principal Sound Festival And Bobfest | 20160903 | Presented by Robert Worby Including performances from the Octandre Ensemble recorded at the Principal Sound Festival at St John Smith's Square in April, and from The World according to Bob, an event celebrating the life of the influential musicologist Bob Gilmore, featuring the ensemble Scordatura. Music by Frank Denyer, Christian Mason, Harry Partch, Horatiu Radulescu, Thomas Smetryns and Claude Vivier. Vivier: Tao Tao Tao - from Kopernikus Frank Denyer: After the Rain Jon Hargreaves (conductor) Partch: Two Psalms; Dark Brother John Schneider (voice) Alfrun Schmid (voice) Vivier: Piece for Violin and Piano Benjamin Marquise-Gilmore (violin) Andrew Zolinsky (piano Vivier: Samarkand Octandre Ensemble, Jon Hargreaves (conductor) Thomas Smetryns: This Could be the Most Beautiful Piece in the World Christian Mason: Layers of Love (UK premiere) Radulescu: Piano Sonata No.2, Op.82 Ian Pace (piano). Music from the 2016 Principal Sound Festival and musicologist Bob Gilmore remembered. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Profile: John Luther Adams | 20150829 | Tom McKinney presents music by John Luther Adams, in conversation with the composer. John Luther Adams was born in 1953 in the American Deep South and brought up in the suburbs of New York, but his music is mostly closely associated with the culture and landscape of Alaska, where he moved in the 1970s and lived for 40 years. He now divides his time between Harlem and the Mexican desert. Combining his compositional training at the California Institute of the Arts, and the influence of composers from Sibelius to Feldman, with a deep concern for the environment, Adams's music has a profound connection with the natural world. His works often explore abstract dimensions of a particular place, resulting in immersive aural pictures which incorporate both musical and natural sounds and aspire to what he calls a 'sonic geography'. Music in this special Hear and Now portrait includes Adams's early attempt at 'nature music', a cycle of chamber pieces called songbirdsongs, music from his Alaskan opera Earth and the Great Weather, and the orchestral piece Become Ocean, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music and Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The Wind in High Places Jack Quartet Inuksuit (excerpt) Massed percussionists and natural sounds Mourning Dove; Apple Blossom Round (from songbirdsongs) The Callithumpian Consort Earth and the Great Weather: No.5 The circle of winds John Luther Adams Ensemble Synergy Vocals (Amanda Morrison, Micaela Haslam, Heather Cairncross, Simon Grant) Nunataks Lisa Moore (piano) Seattle Symphony Ludovic Morlot (conductor) Ilimaq (excerpt) Glenn Kotche (drum kits and percussion) Electro-acoustic landscape by John Luther Adams. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Psappha, Trio Accanto | 20150418 | Presented by Robert Worby. Psappha perform music by Piers Hellawell and David Fennessy, from a recent concert at Manchester University, and from the 2014 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Trio Accanto play pieces by Toshio Hosokawa and Jo Kondo. In Modern Muses, Hear and Now's new series exploring the creative process with today's leading composers and performers, Michael Finnissy and pianist Ian Pace talk about their collaboration on works including The History of Photography in Sound. Also in the programme, we hear Ian Pace performing an extract from that ground-breaking work. And the composer Kerry Andrew travels to Berwick-upon-Tweed to report on a new audio-visual installation by the sound artist Susan Stenger, Sound Strata of Coastal Northumberland. Piers Hellawell: Sound Carvings of Rano Raraku David Fennessy: Big Lung (world premiere of concert version) Jo Kondo: A Shrub Toshio Hosokawa: Vertical Time Study II Trio Accanto. Rober Worby presents Psappha performing music by Piers Hellawell and David Fennessy. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Purcell Weekend, Arrangements Of Purcell | 20090321 | As part of BBC Radio 3's Purcell Weekend, Robert Worby presents a concert given at St Luke's in London, featuring two world premieres as well as an array of works by leading composers who have arranged or written new music inspired by Purcell's Fantasias. Huw Watkins (piano) London Sinfonietta Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor) George Benjamin: Fantasia VII Oliver Knussen: Upon One Note Colin Matthews: Fantasia XIII Michael Zev Gordon: The Impermanence of Things - for piano and ensemble (world premiere) Elliott Carter: A Fantasy about Purcell's Fantasia on One Note Steve Martland: One Note Fantasy James Saunders: either/or (world premiere) Peter Maxwell Davies/Purcell: Fantasia on One Note. Two world premieres as well as new compositions inspired by Purcell. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Quatuor Diotima, Sam Hayden, Louis Andriessen | 20150214 | Recorded at the Spitalfields Festival, France's exceptional new music specialist Quatuor Diotima performs a programme testament to the seemingly inexhaustible medium of the string quartet. The world premiere of Sam Hayden's BBC-commissioned 'Transience' is put beside his mentor Jonathan Harvey's third quartet from 1995 and G退rard Pesson's 'Bitume' (premiered by the Diotima in 2008). Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Sam about the challenges of composing for quartet, an instrumental combination freighted with an intimidating line-up of the great composers. In her series Composers' Rooms, Sara calls on Louis Andriessen to check out his Amsterdam workspace, and she presents the latest in a series of world premieres by winners of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Inspire Young Composers' Competition. G退rard Pesson: String Quartet No. 2 Bitume (S退r退nade chevauch退e) Sam Hayden: Transience (world premiere) Jonathan Harvey: String Quartet No. 3. Quartets by Sam Hayden, Jonathan Harvey and Gerard Pesson, plus recent CDs of new music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Raymond Yiu, Robert Keeley, Brian Elias, Kevin Volans | 20120526 | Tom Service presents contemporary chamber works recorded at a recent Maida Vale Studio Concert, and in the Hear And Now Fifty, choreographer Siobhan Davies nominates an iconic piece by Kevin Volans. Raymund Yiu: Northwest Wind Robert Keeley: On the Tiles Brian Elias: Geranos Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez Kevin Volans: White Man Sleeps. Tom Service presents music by Raymond Yiu, Robert Keeley, Brian Elias and Kevin Volans. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Recent Recordings Of Contemporary Music | 20160716 | Ivan Hewett is joined by composer-performers Kerry Andrew and Neil Luck to explore some recent recordings of contemporary music. Amongst their choices, violin music from Bryn Harrison and Problem Radicals, an opera by Travis Just in which musical and theatrical elements are in constant flux with a score of fuzzed out noise, rock, drones, microtonal tunings, free jazz, hardcore, and field recordings. Ivan Hewett, Kerry Andrew and Neil Luck explore some recent recordings of modern music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Re-inventing Walter Smetak | 20170902 | Kate Molleson unearths the unique instruments of maverick composer Walter Smetak (1913-1984) in a concert from this year's MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin. Ensemble Modern, alongside the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, commissioned four composers to explore Smetak's work using very different approaches. A project several years in the making; 'Re-inventing Smetak' features new pieces from Liza Lim, Paulo Rios Filho, Daniel Moreira and Arthur Kampela. The legacy of Walter Smetak has long been missing from traditional narratives of 20th century experimental music. Originally from Zurich, upon emigrating to Brazil Smetak radically changed his spiritual outlook and never returned home, instead creating around 150 unconventional instruments made out of huge calabashes, long garden tubing and rotating carousels. His musical philosophy and 'plကsticas sonoras' (resounding sculptures) had an untold influence on Brazilian counter-culture including key figures within the Tropicကlia movement, such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. Also in the programme, a new piece from Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe using the human-sized metal sculptures of Harry Bertoia and music from Kate Moore (1979) who was recently awarded the biennial Matthijs Vermeulen Prize. Her piece 'Fern' was performed by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and percussion ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag at another future-thinking European festival specialising in contemporary music, Gaudeamus Muziekweek from Utrecht. tak-tak...tak... for ensemble and plကsticas sonoras (2017) Ronda - The Spinning World Instrumentarium for ensemble and video (2017) volvere for ensemble with plကsticas sonoras (2017) Performed by Ensemble Modern Conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni Recorded March 2017 at MaerzMusik, Berlin Kate Moore (2013) for chamber ensemble, electroacoustic Performed by Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Slagwerk Den Haag Conducted by Candida Thompson Recorded September 2016 at Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Utrecht. Levitation Praxis Pt 4 Image - Albrecht Hotz. Kate Molleson unearths the unique instruments of maverick composer Walter Smetak. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Return To The 2014 Frontiers Festival | 20140510 | Robert Worby introduces the second of his reports from the recent Frontiers Festival in Birmingham which brought together the experimental sounds of downtown New York with those of Birmingham's own vibrant new music scene. Tonight's programme includes new realisations of John Cage, a Feldman premiere, and David Lang's large-scale meditative work The Passing Measures. In this week's Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to Whitstable in Kent to catch electronic composer Matthew Herbert in a state of flux, between his current office-like studio with its strip lights and nylon carpet, and his potential next space, a converted fishing hut on the beach. And continuing our survey of early electronic releases by the American Nonesuch label we hear part of Charles Dodge's Earth's Magnetic Field, a piece of computer music which turns magnetic field data into musical sounds. John Cage: Music for Marcel Duchamp arr. Sam James Maya Verlaak: All English Music is Greensleeves Thallein Ensemble John Cage: Williams Mix with Variations I & 4 Howard Skempton Morton Feldman: Swallows of Salangan (UK Premiere) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Via Nova Howard Skempton (conductor) David Lang: The Passing Measures Dan Rosina (conductor) Charles Dodge: Earth's Magnetic Field. Robert Worby presents more highlights from the Birmingham Frontiers Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Rhodri Davies's Common Objects | 20120908 | Harpist Rhodri Davies leads gwrthrychau cyffredin (Common Objects), an ensemble of composers and improvisers whose music often begins with a graphic score. Recorded at the Canterbury Sounds New Festival and presented by Zo뀀 Martlew in conversation with Angharad Davies. And in the latest instalment of the Hear and Now 50 singer and conductor Paul Hillier is joined by conductor Richard Bernas to celebrate Terry Riley's icon of musical minimalism and monument to the experimental atmosphere of 60's West Coast America, In C. Rhodri Davies: lle y bwriaf angor Heledd Francis Wright: Chwarddiad cawraidd i'r cwmwl Angharad Davies: Cofnod Pen Bore Common Objects: Gwrthrych No. 3 Rhodri Davies, harps Angharad Davies, violin Heledd Francis Wright, flutes Matthew Lovett, electronics Terry Riley: In C Terry Riley, Director and saxophone Members of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in the Sate University of New York at Buffalo. Rhodri Davies's Common Objects ensemble plus Terry Riley's minimalist masterpiece, In C. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Richard Barrett | 20180505 | Robert Worby reviews new CDs of contemporary music with Neil Luck, and introduces a performance of Richard Barrett's new large-scale piece Close-Up, performed by Ensemble Studio6, recorded at Audiograft festival in Oxford in March. The work explores the relationship between pre-composed and spontaneously improvised musical actions. Robert Worby presents Richard Barrett's new piece Close-Up, performed by Ensemble Studio6. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Rise Of The Machines | 20160604 | Tom Service presents a concert called Rise Of The Machines, curated by NonClassical. It juxtaposes Soviet-era evocations of industry, and orchestrations of the drum'n'bass music of Aphex Twin, with turntable concertos by Gabriel Prokofiev. Alexander Mosolov: Iron Foundry Aphex Twin: Blue Calx (arr. Caleb Burhans) Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for turntable and orchestra (5th mvmt: Snow Time) Leroy Anderson: The Typewriter Aphex Twin: Cock ver10 (arr.Stefan Freund) Larry Goves: 'The clouds flew round with the clouds' for orchestra and electronics Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 (Scherzo) Leon Michener: Klavikon solo Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for trumpet, percussion, turntables and orchestra (UKP) Mr Switch (turntables) Joby Burgess (percussion) Daniel de Gruchy-Lambert (trumpet) Southbank Sinfonia conducted by Gerry Cornelius This concert was recorded in April in the massive post-industrial space of Ambika P3, a former concrete factory in Marylebone, London. Image (c) Nick Rutter. Tom Service presents a concert called Rise of the Machines: Aphex Twin and G Prokofiev. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Robert Keeley, Joe Cutler, Jason Yarde | 20120519 | Tom Service presents music by Robert Keeley recorded at a recent Maida Vale Studio Concert, and more of the 20X12 commissioned pieces celebrating the London Olympics. Robert Keeley: Six Inventions for flute and clarinet Robert Keeley: Piano Concerto Mary Dullea (piano) Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez Joe Cutler: Ping! Coull String Quartet Jason Yarde: Skip, Dash, Flow Wonderbrass Graham Fitkin: Track To Track: The Athlon London Chamber Orchestra Graham Fitkin Band. Tom Service with music by Robert Keeley and 20X12 pieces by Joe Cutler and Jason Yarde. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith, George Lewis | 20140419 | In a concert devised and recorded specially for Hear and Now, Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in works by three important figures from the world of new music and improvisation. Roscoe Mitchell, founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, brings a new arrangement of his work NONAAH; we hear the world premiere of Memex by trombonist and computer music pioneer George Lewis; and English guitar experimentalist Fred Frith is the soloist in his 2003 work The Right Angel. The concert also includes an improvised set by all three musicians. And in the third episode of Hear and Now's Composers' Rooms series - exploring the relationship between workspace and composition - Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to the Leicestershire home of English composer Gavin Bryars. Presented by Ed McKeon. Roscoe Mitchell: NONAAH for orchestra Fred Frith: The Right Angel Ilan Volkov (conductor) George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith: Improvisation George Lewis (trombone, electronics) Roscoe Mitchell (saxophones) Fred Frith (guitar) George Lewis: Memex (World Premiere) Ilan Volkov conductor. Ed McKeon presents orchestral music by Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith and George Lewis. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Rsamd Plug Festival | 20110521 | Ivan Hewett presents a concert from the Plug Festival in Glasgow. Ilan Volkov conducts two major world premieres of BBC commissions with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and two new pieces by composition students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Andrew Toovey describes Ubu's Journey as 'a piece for people who are passionate about all different kinds of music ... eclectic, multifaceted and filled with lots of things that really interest me. Helmut Oehring's POEndulum is based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, a dark tale of a man stuck in a pit with the sentence of death swinging over him, and features a major role for extrovert vocal artist David Moss. Andrew Toovey: Ubu's Journey Ilan Volkov (conductor) World premiere: BBC commission Claire McCue: Surge RSAMD MusicLab Christopher Duncan (RSAMD student): Twine Helmut Oehring: POEndulum - a monodrama for speaker and orchestra David Moss (speaker/singer/percussion) World premiere: BBC commission. Ivan Hewett presents a concert from the RSAMD Plug Festival in Glasgow. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ruhr | 20100911 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to the Ruhr region in Germany, European Capital of Culture 2010, to explore the new-musical culture of the former industrial heartland. A conurbation of 53 towns and cities in western Germany, the area has a thriving cultural scene within its post-industrial landscape. Sara meets conductor Steven Sloane, artistic director for RUHR.2010, and composer Gerhard Staebler who has studied and worked in the area throughout its cultural regeneration. Features music recorded at the 2010 Witten Days for New Chamber Music, from composers Adriana Holszky, Enno Poppe, G.F. Haas and Matthias Pintscher, and performed by Nova Vocal Ensemble, Klangforum Wien and ensemble recherche. Adriana H怀lszky - Die Hunde des Orion for eight voices (Premi耀re) 10:42 Beat Furrer (director) Enno Poppe - Speicher I (Premi耀re) 16:44 Extracts from... Gerhard Staebler - Aufschlage GuitArtist Quartett CD: Maningo MR 0410 Track 12 Roland Dahinden - Action for Jackson for bass clarinet (Premi耀re) 8:30 Gareth Davis (bass and double bass clarinet) Georg Friedrich Haas - AUS.WEG for eight instruments (Premi耀re) 18:29 Matthias Pintscher - sonic eclipse for trumpet, horn and ensemble (Premi耀re) 33:17 Anders Nyqvist (trumpet) Christoph Walder (horn) Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to the Ruhr region in Germany, European Capital of Culture 2010. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Salvatore Sciarrino, Daniela Terranova, Francesco Filidei | 20161105 | Ivan Hewett introduces a concert given last month by the London Sinfonietta of new music from Italy, featuring the work of Salvatore Sciarrino, veteran of the avant-garde, alongside that of a younger generation, represented by Daniela Terranova and Francesco Filidei. Also in tonight's programme, students from this year's Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music explore the subject of gender relations in contemporary music, with contributions from Georgina Born, Ashley Fure, Jennifer Walshe and the course's director Thomas Sch䀀fer; and an excerpt from Austrian composer Eva Reiter's work The Lichtenberg Figures, recorded for German Radio at this year's event. Daniela Terranova: Notturno in forma di rosa (UK premiere) Salvatore Sciarrino: Immagina il deserto (UK premiere) Francesco Filidei: Ballata No.2 (UK premiere) Salvatore Sciarrino: ... da un Divertimento (1970) Anna Radziejewska (mezzo soprano) Marco Angius (conductor) Recorded at St John's Smith Square, London. Eva Reiter: The Lichtenberg Figures (excerpt) Eva Reiter (voice) Ictus Georges-Elie Octors (conductor) Recorded at Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, for German Radio, Cologne. Image of Salvatore Sciarrino - Luca Carr | |
Sara Mohr-pietsch | 20090404 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents works by David Fennessy, Gwyn Pritchard and Matthew Taylor, and looks at how they explore different perspectives on time. Fennessy: Dead End (4:20) Pritchard: The Firmament of Time (world premiere; BBC commission) (19:32) Taylor: Symphony No 2 (36:34) BBC Symphony Orchestra Garry Walker (conductor) Fennessy: Big Lung (21:19) Kevin Bowyer (organ) Auska Hatanaka (percussion) Tom de Cock (percussion). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents four works that explore different perspectives on time. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Scelsi, Cage, Cardew | 20111029 | Ivan Hewett is joined in the Hear & Now Studio by conductor Richard Bernas to introduce performances by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, recorded earlier tonight in Glasgow's Fruitmarket. Programmed are three maverick composers: the reclusive Italian Count of Ayala Valva, Giacinto Scelsi; the American philosopher, writer and composer John Cage; and the radical British composer and political activist Cornelius Cardew. Cardew is the subject of the Hear and Now Fifty this week, and his biographer, pianist John Tilbury, describes Cardew as he knew him, as well as the turbulent reaction of early audiences to his masterwork, The Great Learning; while Paul Griffiths explains its place in Cardew's musical and political thinking. Giacinto Scelsi: Ohoi BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins John Cage: Solo for Sliding Trombone Simon Johnson (trombone) The Hear and Now Fifty: Cornelius Cardew: The Great Learning, Paragraph 3 Glasgow Chamber Choir and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Music by Scelsi and Cage, plus the Hear and Now Fifty: Cornelius Cardew's Great Learning. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Scottish Inspirations | 20170318 | Scottish Inspirations' showcases the work of composers inspired by Scotland and Scottish identity and the series is the idea of Thomas Dausgaard, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's new Chief Conductor. Kate Molleson asks Helen Grime, Sally Beamish and Jay Capperauld how Scottish art, place and memory enrich and inform their music and discovers how Scottish culture connects with the rest of the world. Helen Grime: Snow (Two Eardley Pictures) Sally Beamish: Cauldron of the Speckled Seas Jay Capperauld: F耀in-Aithne Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No.9 Martin Roscoe (piano) Thomas Dausgaard (conductor). Orchestral music by Helen Grime, Sally Beamish, Jay Capperauld and Peter Maxwell Davies. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Scottish Inspirations | 20180210 | Kate Molleson presents recordings from a concert given last December by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Continuing its series of works commissioned by its Chief Conductor, Thomas Dausgaard, the orchestra premieres two new works inspired by Scotland and Scottish culture: William Sweeney takes the pibroch, a traditional musical form associated with the bagpipes, and adapts it for the BBC SSO's Principal Clarinet, Yann Ghiro; while the Beltane Fire Festival's spectacular displays and reinterpretation of ancient Celtic rituals are the starting point for Anna Clyne. These premieres are complemented by John McLeod's thrilling tone poem about a famous preserved Viking ship, and by the Scottish Premiere of Glasgow-born Oliver Knussen's Third Symphony. Also tonight: two pieces for multiple bass clarinets from a concert given at London's Cafe Oto, curated by the composer Thanos Chrysakis and featuring his own Gnomon for four bass clarinets, and Christian Wolff's Isn't This A Time in a version for five bass clarinets. And in Sound of the Week, composer Laura Cannell describes her first encounter with the sound of deers barking in a forest. Christian Wolff: Isn't This a Time Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Jason Alder, Heather Roche (bass clarinets) John McLeod: The Gokstad Ship William Sweeney: E las nan Ribheid (The Wisdom of the Reeds) - concertino for clarinet and orchestra (BBC Commission, World Premiere) Yann Ghiro (clarinet) Thomas Dausgaard (conductor) Thanos Chrysakis: Gnomon Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Jason Alder (bass clarinets) Oliver Knussen: Symphony No 3 (Scottish Premiere) Anna Clyne: Beltane (BBC Commission, World Premiere) BBC Scottsih Symphony Orchestra Thomas Dausgaard (conductor). Kate Molleson presents recordings from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sharon Gal, Lee Patterson, Kate Carr | 20181020 | Tom McKinney introduces live performances by three artists working with birdsong: Sharon Gal, Lee Patterson and Kate Carr, part of the EnCOUnTErs series of events curated by SoundFjord's Helen Trosi and recorded at London's Cafe Oto. Plus a selection of recent releases including music for saxophone quartet and electronics by Monty Adkins and Paulina Sundin. Live performances inspired by birdsong from Sharon Gal, Lee Patterson and Kate Carr. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Simon Bainbridge, Hans Werner Henze, Lutoslawski | 20121124 | Ivan Hewett introduces music by Simon Bainbridge performed by the BBC Philharmonic on the occasion of his 60th birthday, plus a complete broadcast of Hans Werner Henze's 1973 orchestral work Tristan, in tribute to the German composer who died last month. And in the final edition of the Hear and Now Fifty, Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen nominates Witold Lutoslawski's landmark work from 1961 Jeux Venitiens, with commentary from writer Paul Griffiths. Simon Bainbridge: Guitar Concerto Craig Ogden (guitar) Clark Rundell (conductor) Simon Bainbridge: Concerti Grossi Witold Lutoslawski: Jeux Venitiens London Philharmonic Orchestra Foyle Future Firsts Clement Power (conductor) Hans Werner Henze: Tristan for piano, tape and orchestra Homero Francesch (piano) Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra Hans Werner Henze (conductor). Ivan Hewett presents music by Simon Bainbridge, Hans Werner Henze and Lutoslawski. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Smith Quartet And Joby Burgess | 20140823 | Robert Worby introduces performances by the percussionist Joby Burgess with the Smith Quartet, recorded at St John's Smith Square last month. The concert included the London premiere of a new work which they jointly commissioned from Graham Fitkin, music by the late Steve Martland recalling personal memories of Africa, and Iannis Xenakis's mammoth solo percussion piece Psappha. Also in tonight's programme, Christopher Fox explores the history of recording in his new work re:play, scored for solo cello and a variety of recording devices including dictaphone, reel-to-reel tape machine and wax cylinder. And in this week's Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets up with another English experimentalist, Laurence Crane, who divides his writing time between home and a quirky rehearsal room in the heart of London. Steve Martland: Starry Night Graham Fitkin: Distil Iannis Xenakis: Psappha Joby Burgess (percussion) Christopher Fox: re:play Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) Aleksander Kolkowski (wax cylinder). Robert Worby with performances from the Smith Quartet and percussionist Joby Burgess. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Songs, Cycles And Scenas | 20120211 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert of New British Music: Songs, Cycles & Scenas, featuring soprano Claire Booth and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen, with oboe and percussion duo New Noise. Claire Booth and composer Colin Matthews discuss the role of song, and songwriting in new British composition. The Hear and Now Fifty focuses on American composer Milton Babbitt's Philomel, with jazz pianist Ethan Iverson and writer Paul Griffiths. Cornelius Cardew - Solo with Accompaniment Howard Skempton - Gloss Jonathan Harvey - Ah! Sun-flower Colin Matthews - Out in the Dark John Woolrich - Stendhal's Observation Philip Cashian - The Songs Few Hear Rolf Hind - Fire in the Head George Nicholson - Selection from Bagatelles for oboe and percussion Alun Hoddinott - A Contemplation upon Flowers Claire Booth (soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano) Recorded at the Purcell Room, London; March 1, 2011. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents new British music and a focus on a work by Milton Babbitt. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sonic Explorations Festival | 20091114 | Robert Worby presents new music from the London Sinfonietta's Sonic Explorations festival, recorded at Kings Place in London. Curated by composer Jonathan Harvey over the course of three days, the festival explores new and old electroacoustic music. In a selection of highlights from one of the days of concerts, Robert presents interviews with the composers and a series of works from the past 40 years, ranging from Stockhausen's Pole for 2 performed using shortwave radios by Sound Intermedia to the world premiere of Claudia Molitor's 'it's not quite how I remember it' for cello, percussion, tape and 3D film. Plus the first in a series of diary pieces from composers Mira Calix and Larry Goves, as they embark on their year-long collaborative project Exchange And Return. Music includes: Mira Calix: ort-oard (with film) (3:58) Oliver Coates (cello) Duncan Macleod: Good Boy, Bad Boy (world premiere) (5:33) Paul Silverthorne (viola) Jonathan Harvey: Other Presences (11:22) Paul Archibald (trumpet) Stockhausen: Poles for 2 (17:11) Emily Hall: Put Flesh On! (9:16) Natasha Barrett: Deconstructing Dowland (UK premiere) (8:31) Huw Davies (guitar) Claudia Molitor: it's not quite how I remember it (world premiere) (8:14) Sam Walton (percussion) Luciano Berio: Naturale (19:14) Sound Intermedia. Robert Worby presents music from the London Sinfonietta's Sonic Explorations festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sonic Fusion Festival, London Ear Festival | 20130330 | Sarah Mohr-Pietsch presents a programme with a focus on Italian and French music, featuring performances from two recent UK festivals. From the Sonic Fusion Festival in Salford last weekend, the Italian flute virtuoso Roberto Fabbriciani plays music by Bruno Maderna and others who've extended the possibilities of flute sonority since the mid twentieth-century - including Fabbriciani himself. The same weekend saw the first-ever London Ear Festival, from which you can hear highlights of an Italian-centred programme by the FLAME ensemble, based in Florence. Plus the world premiere performance, recorded recently in Cologne, of Das Dornr怀schen - Sleeping Beauty - for string quartet, chorus and orchestra, by French composer Brice Pauset: Matthias Pintscher conducts the forces of West German Radio with the Arditti Quartet. Italian music from the Sonic Fusion Festival in Salford and the London Ear Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sonorities 2014 | 20140802 | Robert Worby introduces a concert of electronic music from this year's Sonorities festival in Belfast, marking the 10th anniversary of the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen's University, and featuring the music of French electro-acoustic pioneer Jean-Claude Risset. Jean-Claude Risset: Computer Suite from Little Boy - Fall Joseph Hyde: Vanishing Point Jean-Claude Risset: Duet for one pianist (Jean-Claude Risset, piano) Stefan Damian: Naufrage Jean-Claude Risset: Resonant Sound Spaces. Robert Worby introduces electronic music by Jean-Claude Risset. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sonorities 2018, Belfast's Electronic Music Festival | 20180714 | Sonorities 2018. Robert Worby presents highlights from this important festival of electronic music held in Belfast every two years. In April every 2 years, artists from more than 40 countries across the world gather in Belfast for a week of musical adventure. For over 30 years Sonorities has lead the way for musicians, composers, sound artists to make and present work for curious listeners. As the Sonorities press office puts it: 'Occasionally you might leave unimpressed, but more often than not you'll stumble upon something that will change your outlook on music forever. Music to include: Isaac Gibson: A Hitchhiker's Purgatory Paolo Pastorino: Velocit | |
Sound Festival 2017 | 20171223 | Kate Molleson presents a programme from the innovative Sound Festival that takes place every autumn in and around Aberdeen. French bassoonist Pascal Gallois joins Scottish new music ensemble Red Note in G退rard Grisey's "Talea", a remarkable set of Eight Pieces by Philippe Hersant and a Benedict Mason world premiere. Plus music from Scotland's collective of acousmatic composers. Performances by Red Note Ensemble and acousmatic music from the Sound Festival in Aberdeen Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sound Frontiers: Tom Mckinney | 20160924 | Tom McKinney presents the first of two editions of Hear and Now from Southbank Centre, including live performance from experimental music collective Bastard Assignments. Run by composer-performers Edward Henderson and Timothy Cape, who formed the group in 2011, tonight's specially curated, vocal-themed set includes their own work and also pieces by Josh Spear, Phil Maguire, and Caitlin Rowley. Plus, Andrew Kurowski, Radio 3's New Music editor who oversaw the commissioning of new works from 1991 to 2013, selects works from the archive which tell the story of Radio 3's growing public profile as a major commissioner of new work. Tonight, music from the 1960s by Peter Maxwell Davies, Elisabeth Lutyens and Harrison Birtwistle. Live music from Bastard Assignments and 1960s landmark recordings from Radio 3's archive. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sound Frontiers: Tom Service | 20161001 | Tom Service introduces tonight's edition live from the foyer of Southbank Centre. The London-based Riot Ensemble present a work commissioned especially for tonight's programme, a recent composition by Nina Young and some late-20th century classics for small ensemble. Also tonight, Andrew Kurowski, Radio 3's former New Music editor, who oversaw the commissioning of new works from 1991 to 2013, selects some highlights from the archive including Radio 3 commissions from composers including Jonathan Harvey, James Dillon, Simon Holt and Rebecca Saunders. The Riot Ensemble live Liza Lim: Philtre (1997) Sarah Saviet (violin) Nina Young: Void (2013) Sarah Dacey (soprano), Stephen Upshaw (viola), Adam Swayne (piano) Jack Sheen: New Work (2016) - new work commissioned for this programme Kate Walter (flute), Ausias Garrigos (clarinet), Sarah Saviet (violin), Stephen Upshaw (viola), Claudia Maria Racovicean and Adam Swayne (piano) Aaron Holloway-Nahum (conductor) approx. 11pm Andrew Kurowski talks to Tom Service about BBC Radio 3 Commissions including: James Dillon: Traumwerk Book 3, no 6 (2002) Irvine Arditti (violin), Noriko Kawai (piano) Rebecca Saunders: Choler (2004) Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind (pianos) Simon Holt: eco pavan (1998) Rolf Hind (piano), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Jonathan Harvey: Madonna of Winter and Spring (1986) 4th movement 'Mary Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Peter E怀tv怀s (conductor) approx. 12.00 am more from The Riot Ensemble recorded earlier this evening Thomas Kotcheff: death, hocket, and roll (2014) Claudia Maria Racovicean and Adam Swayne (toy pianos) Giacinto Scelsi: Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet (1966) Maderna: Serenata per un satellite Kate Walter (flute), The Riot Ensemble, Aaron Holloway-Nahum (conductor). Tom Service introduces a special live edition from the foyer of Southbank Centre. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sound Of Cinema | 20130914 | Robert Worby explores the relationship between film, sound and contemporary music. Karlheinz Stockhausen's electronic work Two Couples was created for the BBC-commissioned film In Absentia directed by the Quay Brothers, who cut their experimental animation to the music. This is followed by Toru Takemitsu's soundtrack for Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 horror film Kwaidan which uses distorted recordings of cracking ice and wood to enhance the drama on the screen; musician and writer David Toop and film scholar Peter Grilli celebrate this powerful and innovative score. British composer Michael Finnissy has been influenced by cinematic editing techniques throughout his career and has written music for several silent films including Jean Vigo's A propos de Nice from 1930, one of the pieces included on a recent release by the New Music Players. The role of sound in film editing is explained by Hollywood editor Walter Murch who also discusses the influence of musique concrete on his work in such films as The Conversation and THX 1138. And the programme ends with an excerpt from American composer Michael Gordon's Decasia, a collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison, who uses slowed down and decayed archival footage from the early 20th-century in a meditation on human mortality. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Two Couples Kathinka Pasveer (voice) Karlheinz Stockhausen (voice, electronics) Simon Stockhausen (synthesizers) Toru Takemitsu: Kwaidan soundtrack (excerpt) Michael Finnissy: A propos de Nice Michael Gordon: Decasia Basel Sinfonietta Kasper de Roo (conductor). Robert Worby explores the world of film and sound in contemporary music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Soundfestival 2018, Aberdeen | 20181110 | Kate Molleson introduces music from the 2018 Sound Festival in Aberdeen featuring Icebreaker and the French based Ensemble 2e2m. The programme, which was recorded at Aberdeen's The Lemon Tree and at King's College Chapel at the University of Aberdeen, foregrounds music by Anna Meredith, Jobina Tinnemans, Elizabeth Kelly, Kerry Andrew, Linda Buckley, Kate Moss, Pascale Criton, Rebecca Saunders and Raphaele Biston. Anna Meredith (arr. James Poke): Nautilus (System Restart Version) Jobina Tinnemans: Throwing A Window Through Another Window Elizabeth Kelly: On Edge Kerry Andrew: THE, WHAT IS IT? THE GOLDEN EAGLE? Linda Buckley: Azure Kate Moss: The Dam James Poke, flutes, pan-pipes, wind synthesiser Audrey Riley, cello Bradley Grant, saxophones, clarinets Dominic Saunders, keyboards Gordon Mackay, violin Dan Gresson, drums, percussion James Woodrow, guitar Pete Wilson, bass guitar Pascale Criton: Territoires imperceptibles for flute, cello and guitar Rebecca Saunders: Vermillion for clarinet, cello and electric guitar Raphaele Biston: Traces for flute, clarinet and cello Jean-Philippe Grometto, flute V退ronique F耀vre, clarinet Caroline Delume, guitar David Simpson, cello Kate Molleson from Scotland's festival of new music Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sounds And Visions With Max Richter | 20180519 | Tom Service introduces music from the opening concert of "Sounds and Visions" - a weekend devised by composer Max Richter and artist Yulia Mahr and recorded earlier this month at the Barbican in London. The concert includes Richter's melancholic multimedia work Infra, alongside performances from Jlin. Infra takes its title from the Latin for the word 'below', and that's what Richter explores in this meditation on the events surrounding the London 7/7 bombings - the world just beneath the surface. Originally composed for a dance work choreographed by Wayne McGregor, it's an examination of the submerged sounds of the everyday, of the unnoticed, the overlooked and the forgotten. Max Richter is joined by the strings of the 12 Ensemble. Tom Service introduces a performance of Max Richter's melancholic multimedia work, Infra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sounds Of Japan | 20140208 | Listening to my music can be likened to walking through a garden and experiencing the changes in light, pattern and texture.' Toru Takemitsu's beguiling combination of Japanese traditional instruments and a sound-world inspired by Western composers, at once modernist, lush and refined, won him international recognition. November Steps from 1967 was the breakthrough work which set Takemitsu on an aesthetic path he rarely left over the remaining three decades of his life. In conversation with Ilan Volkov, Ivan Hewett explores not only this more familiar side of Takemitsu but also an earlier aspect with the rarely performed 'Corona II'. The 1962 graphic score has complicated instructions for the players, including the positioning of transparent plastic red, yellow and blue squares on concentric circles. Takemitsu is also put in the context of fellow Japanese composers: his near contemporary Toshi Ichiyanagi (once married to Yoko Ono) and, still in her forties, Keiko Harada. Toru Takemitsu: Green (November Steps II); Marginalia Keiko Harada: Third Ear Deaf III Toshi Ichiyanagi: Parallel Music; Life Music Toru Takemitsu: Corona II BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor). Music by Japanese composers Toru Takemitsu, Toshi Ichiyanagi and Keiko Harada. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Sounds Of Shakespeare | 20160423 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Tom Service introduce adventurous 21st-century responses to Shakespeare's work. Sound artist Martin Parker and viola da gamba player Liam Byrne take music and texts from 1616 and remix them for 2016. Saxophonist Trish Clowes and her trio improvise an anniversary homage using Shakespearean phrases. Plus contemporary music group Apartment House and a newly commissioned work from Matthew Herbert based on texts from Macbeth. Recorded in front of an audience earlier the same day at Shakespeare's former school, King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon. BBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Over the anniversary weekend, from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th April, Radio 3 will broadcast live from a pop-up studio at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Other Place Theatre and other historic venues across Stratford-upon-Avon. Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Tom Service introduce 21st-century responses to Shakespeare's work. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Soundstate | 20190209 | Tom McKinney presents new music performed by Ensemble Modern at the SoundState Festival at London's Southbank in January. Rebecca Saunders: Fury II (UK Premiere) Paul Cannon (double bass) Martin Grütter: Die Haütung des Himmels (UK Premiere) Vito uraj: Runaround (UK Premiere) Rebecca Saunders: Skin Juliet Fraser (soprano) Vimbayi Kaziboni (conductor) SoundState at the Southbank Centre was billed as " five nights of cross-boundary sounds and cutting-edge music". This concert was given by the Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern, one of the best new music ensembles in Europe. It included two major works by Rebecca Saunders, the Berlin-based composer whose intense and subtle sound worlds have put her at the forefront of European composers working today. Also in this concert, Vito uraj's zany Runaround is inspired by tennis; and Martin Grütter's music deals with virtuosity, irony and madness. Also tonight, Laura Bowler's second blog reporting from a ship in Antarctica, where she was researching her latest composition, inspired by this polar region. Tom McKinney presents music performed by Ensemble Modern. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Squib-cram At The Old Dentist | 20180303 | Tom Service presents Squib-CRAM's gig 'Baggage', which was recorded at the Old Dentist in East London in December last year. The gig centres around a collaboration with violinist Chihiro Ono in a new performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, plus performances by the Two Bennys (Adam de la Cour and Benedict Taylor), and improvisations by trombonist Sarah Gail Brand with live electronics by Steve Beresford. Plus in Sound of the Week, Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto, talks about radio static. Two Bennys Set 1 Adam de la Cour (voice and tap dance) Benedict Taylor (voice and viola) Neil Luck (voice - radiophonic commentary) Mary Ann Hushlak (voice - radiophonic commentary) Stomatology (free improvisation) Sarah Gail Brand (trombone) Steve Beresford (live electronics) Two Bennys Set 2 Neil Luck (voice) Mary Ann Hushlak (voice) Beethoven: Violin Concerto Chihiro Ono (violin) Benedict Taylor (viola) Gaia Blandina (cello) Samuel Rice (double bass) Adam de la Cour (voice, tap) Federico Reuben (live electronics) Laonikos Psimikakis-Chalkokondylis (Shakuhachi and guitar) Neil Luck (tabletop objects and voice) Neil Georgeson (organ). Tom Service presents Squib-CRAM's 'Baggage', which includes Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Stephen Montague | 20090314 | Ivan Hewett presents a new concert recording of the music of Stephen Montague by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chats to the composer. An American who has lived in Britain since the mid 1970s, Montague draws deeply on his transatlantic musical roots, from Charles Ives to John Cage. Yet he is also a musician who craves new experiences, from writing extensively for amateur musicians to composing for the unusual forces of klaxon horn soloist and an orchestra of automobiles. He is currently Professor of Composition at Trinity College of Music, London. Music includes: Stephen Montague: Intrada 1631 10:45 Stephen Montague: Concerto for piano and orchestra 31:19 Stephen Montague: Dark Sun - August, 1945 20:55 Grant Llewellyn (conductor) Rolf Hind (piano) Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir Stephen Jackson (director). Ivan Hewett presents a profile of American composer Stephen Montague. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Steve Reich, Tyondai Braxton | 20110528 | Robert Worby introduces highlights from Reverberations, an event held at the Barbican Centre in London earlier this month celebrating the work and influence of American composer Steve Reich. Music includes Reich's Variations for Wind, Strings and Keyboards from 1979, and the European premiere of WTC 9/11 for string quartet and pre-recorded voices. Plus excerpts from Central Market, the orchestral project of Tyondai Braxton, former member of the New York experimental rock group Battles. Steve Reich: Variations for Wind, Strings and Keyboards BBC Symphony Orchestra/Andre de Ridder Tyondai Braxton: Central Market (excerpts) Tyondai Braxton and band; Students from the Guildhall School of Music Steve Reich: WTC 9/11 Kronos Quartet Producer: Felix Carey. Robert Worby introduces music by Steve Reich, including the premiere of WTC 9/11. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Steven Mackey, Christopher Rouse | 20130406 | Robert Worby introduces a pair of orchestral works from America: a twenty minute symphony by the Baltimore-based composer Christopher Rouse, and Steven Mackey's Dreamhouse, a large-scale theatrical work for solo tenor, vocal quartet, electric guitar quartet and orchestra, with words by Mackey and Rinde Eckert. Christopher Rouse: Symphony No.2 BBC Philharmonic Clark Rundell (conductor) Steven Mackey: Dreamhouse Rinde Eckert (singer) Synergy Vocals Catch Electric Guitar Quartet Jason Treuting (percussion) Steven Mackey (conductor). The BBC Philharmonic performs music by Steven Mackey and Christopher Rouse. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Stockhausen, Messiaen, Xenakis, Harvey | 20130831 | Recorded at the Edinburgh Festival earlier this month, Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs a pair of works from the twentieth century canon: Stockhausen's Kontakte for piano, electronics and percussion, and Messiaen's Le Traquet Stapazin from Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux. Complementing those pieces, Jonathan Harvey's 1994 exploration of piano and electronics, Tombeau de Messiaen, and a recording of Xenakis's Okho for three djembes. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch. Stockhausen: Kontakte Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) Marco Stroppa (electronics) Samuel Favre (percussion) Messiaen: Le Traquet Stapazin (The Black-eared Wheatear), from Catalogue d'oiseaux Jonathan Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen for piano and tape Philip Mead (piano) Xenakis: Okho Guildhall Student Ensemble. Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces music by Stockhausen, Messiaen, Xenakis and Harvey. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Stockhausen, Nono, The Rest Is Noise | 20131019 | Robert Worby introduces a concert from The Rest is Noise, the South Bank Centre's year-long festival of classical music from the 20th century inspired by the book of the same name by Alex Ross. Tonight's music comes from two composers associated with the Darmstadt School of the 1950s: Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose monumental score Gruppen calls for three orchestras with three conductors. Plus a closer look at the German composer's electronic masterpiece from the same period, Gesang der Jünglinge, with the help of musicologist Sean Williams and including excerpts from previously unbroadcast session tapes. Nono: Canti per 13 Stockhausen: Gruppen Stockhausen: Gesang der Jünglinge Nono: Polifonica-monodia-ritmica London Sinfonietta Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble Martyn Brabbins (conductor) Baldur Bronnimann (conductor) Geoffrey Paterson (conductor). Robert Worby introduces music by Stockhausen and Luigi Nono. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Stockhausen: Hymnen | 20090131 | _____________ Mon 2 Feb: This programme is now available to listen to in its entirety in iPlayer until Sat 7 Feb. We're sorry for the earlier fault. Robert Worby introduces a complete broadcast of Stockhausen's seminal two-hour tape composition Hymnen (1966-7), a vast collage of recorded national anthems, electronics and found sounds. Robert Worby introduces a full broadcast of Stockhausen's seminal tape composition Hymnen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
String Theories Event | 20091024 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents conversation and music from a diverse and intercontinental group of musicians at the String Theories event at London's Kings Place, which is curated by Nigel Osborne. They include a New York jazz flautist, a French punk guitarist, a Chilean political songwriter, a German gondola pianist and a Japanese ultra-modernist - who have written miniatures for the Edinburgh String Quartet, linked by transformational sound-design installations. Jules Rawlinson (electronics): sound design (1:00) Richard Worth: "..but those unheard are sweeter" (5:25) The Edinburgh Quartet Kostas Rekleitis: Se la mia vita (5:21) The Edinburgh Quartet, Lore Lixenberg (soprano) Benjamin Lang: string quartet no1 (5:25) Lina Tonia: In Memoriam (5:33) The Edinburgh Quartet, Neyire Ashworth (clarinet) Suzanne Parry: This Light (6:38) Vroni Holzmann: looking for something that isn't there (6:55) The Edinburgh Quartet, Neyire Ashworth (bass clarinet), Kirsteen Davidson Kelly (piano) Ryan Somerville: Sono quel che sono (3:25) The Edinburgh Quartet, Neyire Ashworth (clarinet), Kirsteen Davidson Kelly (piano) Interviews with Nigel Osborne and Jules Rawlinson Shiori Usui: Untitled no1 (8:40) Neyire Ashworth (clarinet), Kirsteen Davidson Kelly (piano), Joby Burgess (djembe) Jules Rawlinson: Mute/solo (6:40) Live electronics Alan Gilliland: Grey Blues (4:37) Vassilis Kitsos: Niobi (5:00) Richard Worth (flute) Thomas Seltz: First movement (5:44) Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents new music for string quartet recorded at Kings Place in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Summer Festivals: Spitalfields Festival 2007 | 20071006 | Summer Festivals Robert Worby presents music recorded in June at the Spitalfields Festival in London. Jonathan Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen Oliver Knussen: Prayer Bell Sketch Terry Mann: Bells of Paradise Chris Dench: Passing bells (Night) Philip Mead (piano) Ian Dearden (sound projection) Richard Barrett: Flechtwerk (WP) Carl Rosman (clarinet) Mark Knoop (piano) Richard Barrett: fOKT IV Richard Barrett and fORCH. Robert Worby presents music recorded in June 2007 at the Spitalfields Festival in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Summer Festivals: The Vale Of Glamorgan 2007 | 20070922 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert performed in Llandaff Cathedral by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. James Gilchrist (tenor) Andreas Borregaard (accordion) David Cowley (oboe) Grant Llewelyn (conductor) Ross Edwards: White Ghost Dancing Howard Skempton: The Moon is Flashing (world premiere; BBC commission) Ross Edwards: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (Bird Spirit Dreaming) Giya Kancheli: Kapote (UK premiere). Concert of new music from Llandaff Cathedral, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Supercollider | 20110305 | Ivan Hewett is joined by Dai Fujikura, composer and curator of 'Supercollider', a concert recorded last November in King's Place, London, featuring premieres by Fujikura and David Toop alongside works by Berio, Helmut Lachenmann and Georges Aperghis. FULL PROGRAMME Berio: Sequenza XII for solo bassoon Pascal Gallois (bassoon) Dai Fujikura/Ryuichi Sakamoto: peripheral movements (third section) for electronics and video - world premiere Georges Aperghis: Recitations for solo voice (movements 5, 8 and 12) Lore Lixenberg (voice) Helmut Lachenmann: Toccatina James Widden (violin) David Toop: Quills (to scratch a note) - world premiere David Toop (laptop) and E.laine (voice) Dai Fujikura: OKEANOS, - world premiere of complete cycle Okeanos Ensemble Music by Luciano Berio, Dai Fujikura, Georges Aperghis, Helmut Lachenmann and David Toop. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tansy Davies | 20150502 | Between Worlds - Tansy Davies's new opera performed by ENO and directed by Deborah Warner. Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to composer Tansy Davies about her controversial and eagerly anticipated first opera, recorded last week for Hear and Now at the Barbican Theatre in London. Tansy Davies has said that the story for the opera evolved as she, the poet-librettist Nick Drake and director Deborah Warner allowed themselves to be drawn towards the human events of 9/11 told from different perspectives. Tansy Davies Between Worlds Shaman..... Andrew Watts (countertenor) Janitor..... Eric Greene (bass-baritone) Younger Woman - Rhian Lois (soprano) Realtor..... Clare Presland (soprano) Younger Man..... William Morgan (tenor) Older Man..... Philip Rhodes (baritone) Mother..... Susan Bickley (mezzo soprano) Gerry Cornelius (conductor). Composer Tansy Davies talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about her first opera, Between Worlds. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tansy Davies: Cave | 20180728 | Kate Molleson presents the broadcast premiere of Cave, a new theatre work by Tansy Davies. In the cavernous warehouse space of Printworks in south London, this new music theatre work follows a grieving father's quest for survival in a world devastated by climate change. Desperate to connect one last time with his daughter, Hannah, he enters a dark cave, triggering a journey into an underworld of spirits. A collaboration between Tansy Davies and writer Nick Drake, tenor Mark Padmore sings the role of the Man/Father and mezzo-soprano Elaine Mitchener sings the role of Voice/Hannah. In this production directed by Lucy Bailey, London Sinfonietta is conducted by Geoffrey Paterson and sound design is by Sound Intermedia. Also on the programme, a specially selected playlist by Tansy Davies. Kate Molleson presents the world premiere production of Cave, a new opera by Tansy Davies. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics 2017 | 20170909 | Robert Worby presents new music recorded at the Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in May. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics Glasgow 2018 With The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra | 20180512 | Kate Molleson presents highlights from last weekend's Tectonics Glasgow 2018. With performances taking place right across the city, tonight's Hear and Now includes world premieres from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a work for Ondes Martenot by Bernard Parmegiani, a major figure in the development of electroacoustic music. Also tonight, a performance piece for multiple tape players, Dictaphones and texts by Joe Posset recorded at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket. This is the first of three programmes from Tectonics Glasgow. Now in its fifth year, it brings the best improvisers and new music practitioners from around the world to Glasgow, to collaborate together and with local performers and artists. Naomi Pinnock - The field is woven (WP) James Clarke - Untitled No.9 (BBC Commission, WP) Miya Masaoka: The Movement of Things (WP) Glasgow Chamber Choir, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor) Bernard Parmegiani: Outremer with Nathalie Forget (ondes Martenot) Pascale Criton: OUT, for ondes Martenot with Nathalie Forget (ondes Martenot) Joe Posset: 'Grand Dictaphonic Jaxx for four players' with Joe Posset and Ant Macari (audio/visual artists) with Acrid Lactations. Kate Molleson presents highlights from Tectonics Glasgow 2018. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics Glasgow 2018 With The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra 2-3 | 20180526 | Kate Molleson presents a second programme of highlights from Tectonics Glasgow. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra premiere works by Ashley Fure, Evan Johnson, Marc Sabat and Kristin Thora Haraldsdottir and Anton Lukoszevieze performs a work written for cello and tape by one of Lithuania's leading 'super-minimalist' composers. Ashley Fure finds inspiration in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner whilst Haraldsdottir explores dark, natural tunings and Marc Sabat investigates the sounding and perception of Just Intonation in 'gradually shifting harmonic constellations.' Evan Johnson's new work explores the very margins of sound and silence with a work for eighty five players who offer up an almost colourless palette. Ashley Fure: Bound to Bow (European premiere) Evan Johnson: measurement as contrition: three canons (WP) Kristin Thora Haraldsdottir: In Praise of Darkness (UKP) Marc Sabat: The Luminiferous Aether The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor) Rytis Mazulis: Solipse (WP) Anton Lukoszevieze (cello and tape). Kate Molleson presents a second programme of highlights from Tectonics Glasgow 2018. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics Glasgow: Eliane Radigue | 20150801 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents performances recorded at Tectonics 2015 in Glasgow last May taken from Eliane Radigue's OCCAM OCEAN series, acoustic music which she began in 2011, in which 'each musician is guided by his or her personal 'image'. Born in 1930s Paris, Eliane Radigue is one of the pioneers of electronic music, having studied with Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. More recently, she has turned her attention to acoustic instruments. Sara Morh-Pietsch (presenter) Occam River X Occam V Occam River IV Occam Delta VIII Charles Curtis (cello) Rhodri Davies (harp) Robin Hayward (microtonal tuba) Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon) Elizabeth Arno (producer). Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents acoustic music by Eliane Radigue from Tectonics Glasgow 2015. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics, Pascale Criton, Dror Feiler | 20180602 | Kate Molleson presents new music from Tectonics Festival recorded last month in Glasgow. Evan Johnson: measurement as contrition: three canons (world premiere) Dror Feiler: Tikkun Ulam (world premiere) Dror Feiler (saxophone) Mats Gustafsson (saxophone) Lasse Marhaug (live electronics) Lasse Marhaug: Death of the Noise Artist (world premiere) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov Plus recent chamber works by Pascale Criton. Kate Molleson with music by Evan Johnson, Dror Feiler and Pascale Criton from Tectonics. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tectonics: John Tilbury, Sebastian Lexer, Jon Rose, Pauline Oliveros | 20160820 | Robert Worby presents new music recorded at the Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in May. John Tilbury and Sebastian Lexer play a duet for two pianos and electronics; Jon Rose plays his Palimpolin for solo violin, and Ande Somby sings traditional Sami Yoiks. Plus Modern Muses: composer Pauline Oliveros and trombonist Stuart Dempster discuss their life-long musical relationship, especially working on Oliveros's Deep Listening music. Robert Worby presents music from Tectonics 2016: John Tilbury, Sebastian Lexer, Jon Rose. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Terry Riley's In C | 20150110 | The London Sinfonietta and guests celebrate American composer Terry Riley's influential composition from 1964, In C, a piece which has no fixed duration, instrumentation or number of players. The concert - recorded earlier this evening as part of the Minimalism Unwrapped season at Kings Place in London - also features other works inspired by In C, including new commissions from Robin Rimbauld and Na'ama Zisser. Also in tonight's programme, Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the English experimental composer and artist Chris Newman at his home in Berlin to find out how the immediate environment impacts on his work. Presented by Robert Worby in conversation with composer and academic Dave Smith. Stephen Montague: Eine kleine Klangfarben Gigue Robin Rimbauld, also known as Scanner: New work (world premiere London Sinfonietta commission) Na'ama Zisser: Drowned in C (world premiere, London Sinfonietta commission) Michael Nyman: In C Interlude Terry Riley: In C. The London Sinfonietta performs Terry Riley's In C at Kings Place in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The 21st-century Orchestra | 20170422 | Tom Service presents performances of 21st century orchestral music from Northern Ireland and Scotland. David Brophy conducts the Ulster Orchestra in works by Deirdre Gribbin, Kevin Volans and Ryan Molloy - the world premiere of a concerto composed for violinist Darragh Morgan, inspired by Molloy and Morgan's common heritage in Irish traditional music. There's a UK premiere too, by Olga Neuwirth, with Matthias Pintscher conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Tonight's Modern Muses features composer Terry Riley and the leader of the Kronos Quartet David Harrington reflecting on their long collaboration. Plus the first of three Proms Inspire commissions and a birthday greeting to Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, who turned 70 earlier this month. Image (c) Evan Neff. Tom Service presents 21st-century orchestral music including a Ryan Molloy world premiere. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The Bbc Scottish Symphony In Music, By James Tenney, Jose Maceda And Salvatore Sciarrino | 20180317 | Robert Worby uncovers the music of the American theorist and pioneering experimentalist, James Tenney (1934-2006). Also tonight, the UK premiere of a major work by Jos退 Maceda (1917-2004), a Manila-born ethnomusicologist and composer, whose music fuses Asian and Western styles. Plus a modern Italian classic by Salvatore Sciarrino inspired by Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. As the composer says: 'Amid flashes of consciousness...other music issues forth, literally generated by the echo of a lyrical outburst...the two sound images...elementary opposites against a black sky. James Tenney: Clang (1972) James Tenney: Beast from Postal Pieces (1965-71) for solo double bass James Tenney: Diapason (1996) Jos退 Maceda: Distemperament (1992, UK Premiere) Salvatore Sciarrino: Allegoria della note (1985) James Tenney: Analog#1 (Noise Study) Ilya Grigolts (violin) Dominic Lash (double bass) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor) Sound of the Week: Raven Chacon, the forty year old Native American composer, performer of experimental noise music and installation artist. Robert Worby presents pioneering music by James Tenney, Jose Maceda & Salvatore Sciarrino. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The Bbc Symphony Orchestra's Embedded Scheme | 20160430 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch hears from three composers who have been taking part in Sound and Music's 'Embedded' scheme with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This scheme gives the chance for a handful of composers to work closely with the orchestra in workshops and rehearsals before their new works are unveiled in concert. Each of the new works lasts just under a quarter of an hour but, apart from that, they could not be more different, the sources of inspiration ranging from music for Tom and Jerry cartoons, a poem by Wallace Stevens to the ancient Greek myth of Midas. With over 140 applicants for these sought after opportunities, the sheer quality of the UK's compositional talent could not fail to impress. Alongside these three new works, the BBC Symphony gave a rare performance in the UK of an exquisite orchestral work by the contemporary French master Edith Canat de Chizy and a sublime Meditation symphonique by the twenty two year old Olivier Messiaen. Ryan Latimer Antiarkie David Coonan Vain Prayer Les offrandes oubli退es Edward Nesbit In spite of the mere objectiveness of things ɀdith Canat de Chizy Pierre d'退clair (2010-12) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pierre-Andr退 Valade (conductor) Modern Muses Julia Wolfe and Mark Stewart founders of the New York-based Bang on a Can discuss their enduring musical friendship which has lasted over thirty years, and how they have continued to inspire each other with each collaboration. Edward Cowie String Quartet no. 4 Birdsong Bagatelle 'Tawny Owl The Kreutzer Quartet. Exploring the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Embedded scheme for young composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The Delta Saxophone Quartet At 30 | 20140412 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music from the Delta Saxophone Quartet, taken from a concert recorded recently at St John's Smith Square in London. The quartet celebrate their 30th anniversary with music by Jimmy Giuffre, Arvo Part, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Mark-Anthony Turnage. In the second episode of Hear and Now's Composers' Rooms series, exploring the relationship between workspace and composition, Sara Mohr-Pietsch plays with sharks in the East London studio of electronic composer Kaffe Matthews. Plus music by Richard Skelton, recorded at the Arts Foundation's recent New Experimentalists event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Arvo Part: Summa Mark-Anthony Turnage: Run Riot (London premiere) Terry Riley: Pipes of Medb/Medb's blues (from Chanting the Light of Foresight) Delta Sax in Free Fall (improvisations inspired by the Jimmy Giuffre Trio release of 1962) Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint (arr. Susan Fancher) The Delta Saxophone Quartet: Christian Forshaw - soprano sax /clarinet Pete Whyman - alto sax /soprano sax /clarinet Tim Holmes - tenor sax/clarinet Chris Caldwell - baritone sax/bass clarinet. Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music from the Delta Saxophone Quartet and by Richard Skelton. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The Devil Inside | 20160409 | Tom McKinney introduces a performance of Stuart MacRae's acclaimed new opera "The Devil Inside", based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson and presented by Music Theatre Wales. The opera tells of two young men, lost in the mountains, who stumble across a magnificent mansion, wherein lives an old man as rich as Croesus. The source of the old man's wealth is a magical bottle containing an imp which will grant any wish. The old man offers to sell the bottle, but warns that whoever has the bottle on the day of their death will forfeit their soul to the imp. They must sell the bottle, and for a price less than they paid for. Stuart MacCrae's colourful and imaginative work, a 21st Century re-think of Stevenson's story, sets a text by poet Louise Welsh, and explores ideas of greed and desire. This performance of "The Devil Inside" by Music Theatre Wales was recorded live at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and is a co-commission and a co-production between Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera. The world premiere was performed by Scottish Opera at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on 23rd January 2016. Cast Nicholas Sharratt (tenor) as Richard Ben McAteer (baritone) as James Rachel Kelly (mezzo soprano) as Catherine Steven Page (bass-baritone) as Old Man and Vagrant The Music Theatre Wales Ensemble conducted by Michael Rafferty. The production was directed by Matthew Richardson and designed by Samal Blak and Ace McCarron.". Tom McKinney introduces a performance of Stuart MacRae's new opera The Devil Inside. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The Golden Dragon | 20180127 | Tom McKinney introduces music by Peter E怀tvos including music for percussion and orchestra and his opera The Golden Dragon, a controversial and gritty indictment of attitudes towards migration and to the exploitation of those forced to find an existence on the extreme fringes of society. The opera was given last year to critical acclaim by Music Theatre Wales and is inspired by an allegorical play by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Aesop's fable of "The Cricket and The Ant". It is "part comedy and part tragedy", a quasi Brechtian drama in style, with the singers performing multiple role types and telling many stories, all of which converge to convey a moving and sometimes very shocking, visceral comment on the human potential for brutality. The programme includes an interview with the director Michael McCarthy. Peter E怀tvos: Speaking Drums (2012/13) for percussion and orchestra BBC Philharmonic / Juanjo Mena (conductor)/ Martin Grubinger (percussion) (Recorded in Gasteig, Munich on March 16 2017 ) Peter E怀tvos: The Golden Dragon (2013/14) (Recorded at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 3rd October 2017) Cast: Llio Evans (The Little One) Lucy Schaufer (Old Cook, Granddaughter, The Ant, Hans, Chinese Mother) Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks (Waitress, young Asian, Grandfather, The Cricket, Chinese Aunt) Daniel Norman (Old Asian, Eva - the brunette air stewardess, the friend of the granddaughter, Chinese Father) Johnny Herford (An Asian, Inga- the blonde air stewardess, Chinese Uncle) The Music Theatre Wales Ensemble conducted by Geoffrey Paterson. Tom McKinney introduces a performance of Peter Eotvos's opera The Golden Dragon. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The New Celts | 20100828 | The New Celts': Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert of recent works by Scottish and Irish composers, given in June at City Halls, Glasgow. Martin Suckling: Breathe James Clapperton: Songs and Dances of Death David Fennessy: This is How it Feels (Another Bolero) David Horne: Submergence Plus Jonathan Harvey's 'Speakings', from the BBC SSO's new disc of orchestral music by their former Composer-in-Association. Introduced by Tom Service. CD Details: Jonathan Harvey - Speakings Ilan Volkov (conductor) AEON (AECD1090) Tracks 3 - 5 Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC SSO in works by Scottish and Irish composers. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
The World's Strangest Proms After Party | 20180908 | Enter a psychedelic dream sequence from an imaginary Last Night of the Proms after party, where fuzzy memories of festivals past and future rub up against each other, creating a sense of bewilderment, excitement and constant surprise. Orderly Mouthpiece Spent is a special edition of Hear And Now devised and composed by Neil Luck and members of ARCO and the Squib Box collective, who have established a reputation for cutting-edge concert events combining elements of physical theatre, avant-garde virtuoso musical performance and sound art. Get ready for a combination of radiophonic treatments, newly composed chamber works and classic radio tropes, all filtered through the zany and surreal imagination of Neil Luck and his ensemble - as presenter Tom Service attempts to keep track of the proceedings. Performers and contributors: Fiona Bevan Adam de la Cour Kit Downes Tom Jackson Dominic Lash Lore Lixenberg Musarc choir Hatsune Miku Lynette Quek Federico Reuben Benedict Taylor Max Wainwright Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Thierry Escaich Portrait | 20150509 | The day after the French composer Thierry Escaich celebrates his 50th birthday, Tom Service portrays his career through works that were specially-recorded at a concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, including Miroirs d'ombres, Baroque Song and Vertiges de la croix. Tom Service (presenter). Plus the latest episode of 'Modern Muses', the series where key composers and performers from the world of new music discuss their creative collaborations. Tonight, Thomas Larcher and tenor Mark Padmore on Larcher's 2011 songs 'A Padmore Cycle'. Miroir d'ombres Adrian Partington (organ) Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjab退dian (violin) Xavier Phillips (cello) Franck Ollu (conductor) Modern Muses: Thomas Larcher and tenor Mark Padmore discuss the creative collaboration behind Larcher's 'A Padmore Cycle'. Tom Service portrays composer Thierry Escaich at 50, introducing his Miroir d'ombres. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: Julian Anderson At 50 | 20171021 | Kate Molleson uncovers the many-faceted musical voice of one of the UK's most distinguished composers. Equally at home in chamber music, choral music and when writing for the world's great symphony orchestras, tonight's programme promises to offer glimpses into the musical mind of this most versatile of composers. With performances recorded earlier today at the BBC's Total Immersion day at London's Barbican Centre from the BBC Singers, distinguished students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Kate is joined in the studio by Christopher Dingle. Julian Anderson: Eden (2007) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner (conductor) Julian Anderson: Imagin'd Corners (2002) Julian Anderson: Four American Choruses No. 2. Beautiful Valley of Eden (2003) BBC Singers, Nicholas Kok (conductor Julian Anderson: Alhambra Fantasy (2000) Students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Richard Baker (conductor) Julian Anderson: Ring Dance (1987) Julian Anderson: O Sing unto the Lord (1999) BBC Singers, Nicholas Kok (conductor) Julian Anderson: In lieblicher Bl䀀ue (2014) Carolin Widmann (violin) Julian Anderson: Fantasias (2009) Eden celebrates the sculptor Constantin Brancusi while Imagin'd Corners revolves around Anderson's attraction to the French horn. Carolin Widmann joins the BBC SO for In lieblicher Bl䀀ue, a work that uses space in a way that only a live performance can reveal. Fantasias is, in Anderson's words, 'for all its wild contrasts, a celebration of the modern symphony orchestra'. Kate Molleson presents highlights from the day's events at London's Barbican Centre. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: New From The North | 20130309 | Tom Service presents Nordic music from today's Total Immersion at London's Barbican Centre: New from the North. A concert of UK premieres from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, including a new Symphony by Per Norgard; the Vertavo Quartet with a Poul Ruders world premiere; plus choral music from the BBC Singers. Programme to include: Magnus Lindberg: Era (UK premiere) John Storgards (conductor) Poul Ruders: String Quartet No. 4 (world premiere) Per Norgard: Symphony No. 8 (UK premiere) John Storgards (conductor). Tom Service with Nordic music from a Total Immersion event at the Barbican in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: Percussion! | 20150131 | Tom Service presents Wolfgang Rihm's epic Tutuguri: two hours of music for large orchestra, percussionists, taped chorus and speaker, composed in the early 1980s and inspired by Antonin Artaud's poem Tutuguri - Le Rite du soleil noir (The Rite of the Black Sun). This performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kent Nagano, recorded earlier this evening at today's Total Immersion event celebrating the world of percussion, features the baritone Leigh Melrose in the role of the speaker. Plus other highlights from the day. Tom Service presents Wolfgang Rihm's epic Tutuguri played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: Peter Eotvos | 20110514 | Robert Worby presents a concert given earlier today at the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day devoted to the music of Peter E怀tv怀s Zero Points Psychokosmos Levitation IMA (Prayer) Mikl s Lukကcs (cimbalom) Richard Hosford and John Bradbury (clarinets) BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers & BBC Symphony Chorus conducted by Peter E怀tv怀s Peter E怀tv怀s is a composer who creates dazzling new sonorities, inventing astonishing combinations of instrumental and electronic textures and drawing listeners deep into the tonal fabric of his works. IMA, which portrays the biblical act of creation, is a sequel to Atlantis and is E怀tv怀s's biggest choral work to date, employing the forces of a choir of solo singers and a main choir. Fragments of pieces written during his time as a student in Budapest in the early 1960s, meanwhile, supply an autobiographical flavour to Psychokosmos for cimbalom (a dulcimer used in Eastern European folk music) and "traditional" orchestra. Robert Worby presents a concert of music by Peter Eotvos, from Total Immersion 2011. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez At 90 | 20150321 | In the week of Pierre Boulez's 90th birthday, Robert Worby is joined in the studio by the music critic Paul Griffiths to present music performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Guildhall New Music Ensemble at concerts recorded earlier today at the Barbican and LSO St Luke's in London as part of Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez at 90. Plus Composer's Room with another driving force in French contemporary music, Betsy Jolas. Presented by Robert Worby D退rive 1 (1984) David Corkhill (conductor) Piano Sonata No.2 (1947-48) Jean-Frederic Neuburger (piano) Eclats/Multiples (1965-1970) Pablo Rus Broseta (conductor) Composer's Room: Betsy Jolas Memoriale (original ...explosante-fixe...) (1985/1993) Elizabeth Arno (producer). Robert Worby and Paul Griffiths present music from Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez at 90. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Total Immersion: The Music Of Louis Andriessen | 20160213 | Tom Service presents the first of two programmes featuring highlights from today's Total Immersion celebration of the music of the influential Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Tonight you can hear works from concerts by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and Guildhall New Music Ensemble, climaxing with the UK premiere of Andriessen's major new orchestral work Mysterien. In Hear and Now at the same time next Saturday, the UK premiere of Andriessen's newest music theatre work: La Commedia, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. Bach arr. Andriessen: Prelude in B minor (Das wohltemperierte Klavier, Part 1) Britten Sinfonia, Conductor Andrew Gourlay. Andriessen: De Stijl Fanny Alofs (speaker), Synergy Vocals, Conductor Clark Rundell. Andriessen: Hout Conductor Geoffrey Paterson. Andriessen: Dances Allison Bell (soprano), Andriessen: Mysteri뀀n (UK premiere) Andriessen's hard-hitting, propulsive music burst on to the international scene in bold response to the American Minimalists. His dynamic, jazz-influenced art has proved a provocative and invigorating force in European music, while his collaborations with film-makers such as Peter Greenaway have pushed forward the boundaries of musical theatre and cinematic technique. Expect pungent sonorities, hectic rhythms and a feast of ideas. Highlights from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tristan Murail Day | 20090207 | Tom Service presents a special edition of the programme, featuring music recorded during the BBC Symphony Orchestra event Total Immersion: Tristan Murail. One of France's leading composers and a key composer of Spectralist music, Tristan Murail writes groundbreaking works for acoustic and electronic intruments that are both beautiful and complex in equal measure. Having studied with Olivier Messiaen, he founded Ensemble l'Itineraire and then went on to work at IRCAM in Paris. Total Immersion: Tristan Murail is the second of the the BBC Symphony Orchestra composer days, and features music from across Murail's output. Tristan Murail: Pour adoucir le cours du temps (UK premiere) (18:14) Guildhall New Music Ensemble Pierre-Andr退 Valade conductor Tristan Murail: Gondwana (17:45) Pascal Roph退 conductor Tristan Murail: Time and Again (16:03) Tristan Murail: ... amaris et dulcibus aquis... (23:09) James Morgan conductor BBC Singers Tristan Murail: Terre d'ombre (15:12) Tom Service presents music recorded during the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Tristan Murail Day Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Two American Mavericks | 20091121 | Robert Worby explores the music of James Tenney and Pauline Oliveros, both born in the 1930s in the American South West, and both pioneers in tape music who developed their own musical characters while ignoring the rules. Including an archive interview with Tenney, who died in 2006, and a conversation with Oliveros recorded at the Deep Listening Retreat she led in Devon. Opening collage contains excerpts from 'Ione' by Oliveros and 'Koan' by Tenney. (Full details of these pieces below) Tenney: Collage no.1: Blue Suede Shoes (3:30) (tape music) From the album: James Tenney: Selected Works 1961- 1969 CD: New World Records 80570 Oliveros: I of IV (excerpt) (4:05) (electronic music) From the album: Pauline Oliveros - Electronic Works 1965 + 1966 CD: Paradigm Discs PD 04 Tenney: Chorale (3:50) Clemens Merkel (violin) Eve Egoyan (piano) BBC recording at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2008 Oliveros: Ione (17:40) Pauline Oliveros (accordion) Stuart Dempster (trombone and didgeridoo) From the album Deep Listening CD: New Albion NA 022 CD Tenney: Koan (20:06) Quatuor Bozzini Oliveros: Poem of Change (10:21) Pauline Oliveros (voice, accordion) From the album: Lesbian American Composers CD: CRI CD 780 Robert Worby explores the music of American mavericks James Tenney and Pauline Oliveros. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Tyondai Braxton, Qasim Naqvi, Edgard Varese, Mira Calix | 20180428 | Tom Service presents a concert featuring a major new work by Tyondai Braxton, the American composer who is also a former member of art rock band, Battles, and a classic 20th century avant garde work by Var耀se. Qasim Naqvi: The Bad Feelings Rainbow (world premiere) Tyondai Braxton: Telekinesis (world premiere) Var耀se: D退serts BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Andr退 de Ridder (Recorded on 18th April at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London) also tonight, a Sound Of The Week from electronic musician and composer Mira Calix Mira Calix: bowling4strings. New music by Tyondai Braxton and Qasim Naqvi played by BBC Concert Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ulster Orchestra | 20090829 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces an intriguing selection of instrumental and electro-acoustic music recorded by the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. Michael Alcorn: Mambo (1998) 9:03 Ed Bennett: Bad Disco (2008) 6:43 Piers Hellawell: Degrees of Separation (2004) 10:52 Fergus Shiel (conductor) Michael Alcorn: Synapse (2003) 6:59 Andriessen: Dances (1991) 24:07 Marije van Stralen (soprano) Gavin Maloney (conductor) Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces an selection of instrumental and electro-acoustic music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ulster Orchestra | 20180331 | Robert Worby introduces a recent performance by the Ulster Orchestra, including the World Premiere of Greg Caffrey's Environments 1. We hear more pieces from a concert of works for clarinet and bass clarinet recorded last December at London's Cafe Oto. And in the latest Sound of the Week, Larry Goves reflects on the sound of wind in poplar trees. Brian Irvine: Drowning in the Sea of Your Dreams Greg Caffrey: Environments 1 for Piano and Orchestra (Finghin Collins, piano) Patrick Brennan: Cycling Elaine Agnew: Make a Wish Ed Bennett: Psychedelia Ton de Leeuw: Mountains for bass clarinet and pre-recorded electronics Chris Cundy (bass clarinet). Robert Worby introduces a recent performance by the Ulster Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Ulster Orchestra, Folk Connections | 20160130 | Ivan Hewett presents music from a concert given by the Ulster Orchestra earlier this month. Plus Hear and Now joins Radio 3's Folk Connections, including the latest instalment of Modern Muses, the downloadable series where composers and performers tell the stories behind their musical collaborations. This week features Sally Beamish with Scottish musicians, fiddler Chris Stout and harper Catriona McKay, on the creation of Beamish's folk-infused, improvisatory double concerto, Seavaigers. Elaine Agnew Twilight (2010) David Brophy (conductor) Piers Hellawell Dogs & Wolves (2005, BBC Commission) Ed Bennett Ausland (2005) Marion Ingolsby The Heron by the Weir (2008) Ian Wilson Mutazione: Piano Concerto (2003, WP) Matthew Schellhorn (piano) Modern Muses: Sally Beamish, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay Chris Stout (fiddle) Catriona McKay (harp) Scottish Ensemble. Ivan Hewett presents music from a recent concert given by the Ulster Orchestra. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Unsuk Chin, Total Immersion 2011 | 20110409 | Unsuk Chin's evocative scores have won major awards and an international following among both audiences and the world's leading musicians and ensembles. With music recorded at a day dedicated Chin at the Barbican's Total Immersion event, Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Professor Jonathan Cross about to the Korean-born composer. Unsuk Chin Acrostic Wordplay Yeree Suh (soprano) London Sinfonietta Stefan Asbury (conductor) Unsuk Chin Double Concerto for Piano and Percussion Andrew Zolinsky (piano) & Owen Gunnell (percussion) Unsuk Chin Gougalon Unsuk Chin Rocana BBC Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov (conductor) Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents music by Usuk Chin from Total Immersion 2011 at the Barbican. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Uproar Presents 10x10 | 20190223 | Kate Molleson presents a concert of new music from ten Welsh composers given by ensemble UPROAR led by conductor Michael Rafferty. The concert features new works by Andrew Lewis, Sarah Lianne Lewis, John Metcalf, Carlijn Metselaar, Gareth Moorcraft, Maja Palser, Michael Parkin, Lynne Plowman, Steph Power and Guto Puw. Also Andrew Lewis talks to Kate about Electroacoustic Wales and we hear his 2016 electronic work Skyline and works by Huw McGregor and Alex Bailey. Kate Molleson presents new music from Wales with a concert by the UPROAR ensemble. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Vale Of Glamorgan Festival 2009 | 20090926 | Robert Worby reports from the 2009 Vale of Glamorgan Festival, and presents a diverse programme of music recorded at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff. Brett Dean: Ceremonials 10:10 Paul Stanhope: Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams 17:05 Ross Edwards: Symphony No 5 (The Promised Land) 44:43* juice (vocal ensemble)* BBC National Orchestra of Wales Andre de Ridder (conductor) Robert Worby presents Australian music from the 2009 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Vale Of Glamorgan Festival 2013 | 20130720 | Music by Graham Fitkin and Juste Janulyte recorded at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Fitkin's extrovert ballet 'Mindset', with its 'hints of Shakespearean ribaldry and Ealing comedy brawl' is paired with his more quiet and controlled Cello Concerto. Sandwiched between the two is Lithuanian composer Juste Janulyte's 'Elongation of Nights', whose sound, she says, is 'like a utopian 84-string instrument'. Presented by Ivan Hewett in conversation with Graham Fitkin. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Vale Of Glamorgan Festival, Bent Sorensen, Qigang Chen | 20180818 | Tom Service introduces a concert of new orchestral music recorded at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in May. Qigang Chen: L'eloignement Thierry Escaich: Psalmos Bent Sørensen: Trumpet Concerto Qigang Chen: Jian Tchen Tse Meng Meng (voice) Philippe Schartz (trumpet) BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales Alexandre Bloch (conductor) Also tonight, music writer Tim Rutherford-Johnson joins Tom to review new CDs of new music, including the first releases on the new label All That Dust. BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Qigang Chen, Thierry Escaich and Bent Sorensen. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Vale Of Glamorgan Festival, Steve Reich | 20110917 | Ivan Hewett presents music recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at this year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival, including a world premiere by Mark Bowden and music from Qigang Chen, Music Director of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Plus the 'Hear and Now Fifty': Steve Reich's Different Trains is the first in a new series featuring 50 signal works from the second half of the last century nominated by figures from the world of new music and the arts. Matthew Herbert, electronic music producer and bandleader, gives his take on the continuing relevance of Steve Reich's seminal 1988 piece for tape and string quartet, where recorded speech leads the melodic lines to create a remarkable and evocative atmosphere. The feature includes commentary from the South Bank's Head of Contemporary Culture Gillian Moore, and is followed by the Kronos Quartet's original recording of the work. John Metcalf: Three Mobiles (for soprano saxophone and string orchestra) Mark Bowden: Lyra (cello concerto) Qigang Chen: Wu Xing Oliver Coates (cello) Gerard McChrystal (soprano saxophone) Jean-Micha뀀l Lavoie (conductor) Steve Reich: Different Trains Kronos Quartet. Music from the 2011 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Plus the first of the Hear and Now Fifty. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Viennese Masters | 20080524 | Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a programme of new music from Vienna, and finds striking contrasts between two generations currently composing in this great cultural centre. Kurt Schwertsik: Instant Music Johanna Doderer: Psalm 2 Lukas Ligeti: Castle of Turns HK Gruber: Three Mob Pieces Ensemble 10/10 Clark Rundell (conductor) (Recorded May 14 2008 in St George's Hall, Liverpool) Olga Neuwirth: Miramondo Multipla William Forman (trumpet) Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Friedrich Cerha (conductor). Exploring the contrast between two musical generations currently composing in Vienna. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Welsh Music | 20130629 | In the last of five programmes celebrating British music, Ivan Hewett heads West to present recent orchestral works from Wales by Mark David Boden, Huw Watkins, Guto Puw, Joseph Davies and Mark Bowden. And concluding our series marking the 70th birthday of four British composers this year, Robert Worby talks to author Christopher Mark about the early work of Roger Smalley, focusing on Pulses for brass, percussion and ring modulator. Ivan Hewett presents a programme showcasing the rich variety of recent Welsh music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Why Music? Live From The Street At The Wellcome Trust | 20150926 | Live from The Street at the Wellcome Trust, Tom Service presents a programme performed by Principal players of Aurora Orchestra, including world premieres from three young composers from the BBC Proms Inspire Scheme: Daniel Penney, Finlay Stafford and Toby Hession. Also on the programme 'none sitting resting', another world premiere, commissioned by Wellcome Collection, and written specially for 'Why Music?' by New Zealander Antonia Barnett-McIntosh and inspired by the theme of rest and busy-ness. The programme alos includes Anna Meredith's 'Chorale' for MRI scanner and string quartet; and experimental pianist Sarah Nicolls will perform her own works on her 'Inside-Out' piano as well as music by Henry Cowell and George Crumb. She will also take part in a special performance improvisation with Atau Tanaka - a performer who bridges the fields of media art, experimental music and research. Sara Nicolls: Sun-on-Sea George Crumb: Makrokosmos Night-Spell I (Sagittarius) Antonia Barnett-McIntosh: 'none sitting resting Daniel Penney: Expansions Sarah Nicolls: Cold Henry Cowell:The Banshee Finlay Stafford: Evanescent Waltz George Crumb: Makrokosmos: Ghost-Nocturne (Virgo) for the Druids of Stonehenge (Night-Spell II) & Cosmic Wind (Libra) Sarah Nicolls: Seagull Chorale Toby Hession: Recollections Anna Meredith: 'Chorale' for MRI scanner and string quartet Sarah Nicolls and Atau Tanaka: Duo for Bodies The Proms Inspire Scheme brings together young composers, aged 12 to 18, to learn new skills and enjoy making music. Inspire has worked with over 450 young composers and will have commissioned nine new works and performed and broadcast works by 17 young composers in 2015. Daniel Penney (b. 1999) began learning music through the Kodကly Method and took classical guitar lessons from the age of 5 in Dublin. He received a Rolling Stones scholarship to study classical guitar at the Yehudi Menuhin School when he was 9 years old and has embraced composition as part of his studies since then. Finlay Stafford (b. 1998) is a musician and multi-instrumentalist. He has been playing drums since the age of 5, and is interested in music across genres and time periods; from an early love affair with The Beatles to a continuing interest in jazz and modern psychedelia. Toby Hession(b. 1997) is from Peterborough, where he sang as a chorister in the Cathedral Choir and studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music. He has had works performed at Peterborough Cathedral and the Royal Northern College of Music and, in 2013, he was commissioned to compose a piece for the Commonwealth Observance Day in Westminster Abbey. Tom Service presents live performance of world premieres and recent music. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Why Music? The Key To Memory | 20171014 | Kerry Andrew presents a memory-themed concert of new music. Parkinson Saunders will be challenging each other's memory in performances involving associating random words with specific sounds. Seated at two tables, their instrumentation comprises any sound-producing means other than conventional instruments. This can include lo-fi electronics, ordinary objects, toys, and vocalisations, resulting in a table-top orchestra of possibilities. Also performing live will be Bastard Assignments, a London-based collective of composer-performers. They curate gigs that bring the best of experimental music and performance to London, as well as showing their own work across Europe. They are currently a quartet comprised of Edward Henderson, Timothy Cape, Caitlin Rowley and Josh Spear. They are joined tonight by Antonia Barnett-McIntosh, a former composer in residence at Wellcome Collection. Live from Wellcome Collection as part of Why Music? The Key to Memory, a weekend of events, concerts and discussions exploring music's unique capacity to be remembered. Kerry Andrew presents a concert on the theme of memory live from Wellcome in London. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Witten Days For New Chamber Music 2015 | 20150627 | Ivan Hewett presents a round-up from the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Witten Days for New Chamber Music), which took place in April and is one of the most important contemporary music festivals in the world. This year's festival features a portrait of the Austrian composer Beat Furrer and also taps into the mining history of the Ruhr with a sound-walk through the Muttental, a wooded valley near Witten which is marked by the decorated wrought-iron entrances to early mine shafts. This edition of Hear and Now presents musical highlights from the festival, including a European premiere by Chaya Czernowin and World premieres by Martin Matalon, Joanna Wozny, Beat Furrer, Ondrej Adamek, James Clarke and Vito Suraj. Plus Four Bits Counters for eight hands by Masahiro Miwa, which completes the Muttental sound-walk. Slow Summer Stay III - Upstream (European premiere) Ensemble KNM Berlin Manuel Nawri (director) oenm . 怀sterreichisches ensemble für neue musik Johannes Kalitzke (director) Traces XI (World premiere) Uwe Dierksen (tenor trombone) Max Bruckert (electronics) Lacunae (World premiere) Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart Zwei Studien (World Premiere) WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne Steinar (World premiere) Untitled No.7 (World premiere) Nicolas Hodges (piano) Aftertouch (World premiere) Four Bits Counters for eight hands (2013) Schlagquartett K怀ln Elizabeth Arno (producer). Ivan Hewett presents a round-up from the 2015 Witten Days for New Chamber Music in Germany Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Witten New Music Days | 20140614 | Based in the industrial heartland of Germany's Ruhr Valley since 1936, Witten New Music Days is one of the world's leading contemporary music festivals, clocking up over 600 world premieres to date. Tom Service talks to Witten New Music Days director Harry Vogt about the festival's history and its vital place in German cultural life. Together, they pick some of of the plums from this year's extraordinarily rich programme of first performances including music by Philippe Manoury, Rebecca Saunders, Brian Ferneyhough, and Gy怀rgy Kurtကg. And in Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch steps inside the courtyard garden studio of James MacMillan, a recent addition to his house in Glasgow in which he's created a quiet retreat for his work. Gy怀rgy Kurtကg: Clov's last monologue (a fragment) Arditti String Quartet Philippe Manoury: Trauerm䀀rsche WDR Symphony Orchestra Peter Rundel (conductor) Wolfgang Rihm: In Verbundenheit Arditti String Quartet: Rebecca Saunders: Void Christian Dierstein & Dirk Rothbrust (percussion) Brian Ferneyhough: Silentium Marco Stroppa: La Vita Immobile (4 micro automi) Brice Pauset: Schwarzm䀀rkte ensemble recherche. Tom Service listens to world premieres from the 2014 Witten New Music Days festival. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Witten New Music Days, Nicolaus Huber, Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Jonathan Harvey | 20170722 | Tom Service presents highlights from this year's Witten New Music Days in Germany, including music by featured composer Nicolaus Huber, performed by the Arditti String Quartet and Ensemble Modern. Also tonight, the first of four archive features celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Andrew Kurowski talks to Robert Worby about some of the British composers who became 'HCMF Fixtures James Dillon: Dillug Kefitsah Noriko Kawai (piano) Brian Ferneyhough: Carceri d'invenzione III Asko Ensemble Jonathan Harvey: Bhakti - sections I & II London Sinfonietta with Sound Intermedia. Tom Service with new music from Witten and Huddersfield by Ferneyhough, Dillon and Harvey. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin | 20130105 | Tom Service presents the UK premiere performance of Wolfgang Rihm's Vigilia. This intense, hour long sequence of motets and instrumental meditations on the epistles associated with Easter was recorded at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. And before that a chance to hear Unsuk Chin's daring studies for piano performed as part of a 2011 Total Immersion weekend at London's Barbican Centre. Unsuk Chin: Six Piano Etudes 1: in C, 2: Sequenzen, 3: Scherzo ad libitum, 4: Scalen, 5: Toccata, 6 grains Clare Hammond (piano) at approx. 10.50pm Wolfgang Rihm: Vigilia Motet I: Tristis et anima, Motet II: Ecce vidmus eum, Motet III: Velum templi scissum est, Motet IV: Tenebrae factae sunt, Motet V: Cagliaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo, Motet VI: Recessit pastor noster, fons aquae vivae, Motet VII: aestimatus sum cum descentibus Exaudi, Ensemble musikFabrik, Francesco Filidei (organ) James Weeks (conductor). Tom Service presents a performance of Wolfgang Rihm's Vigilia, plus Unsuk Chin's 6 Etudes. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions | |
Works From Iceland Performed, By The Bbc Symphony Orchestra | 20190316 | Contemporary music from Iceland. Tom Service presents the UK premieres of four orchestral works from Iceland, especially recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Haukur T masson writes a work of brooding intensity for orchestra without brass, inspired by the repetitive sounds of the weaver's loom. A solo cello and chamber orchestra provides the pallet for Pကll Ragnar Pကlsson's Quake. But are his eruptions those of the physical world or some sort of emotional torment? Meanwhile, Valgeir Sigurdsson addresses not the elemental force of one of Iceland's most dramatic volcanic eruptions but its aftermath as, in 1875, hundreds of Icelanders emigrate to Canada. In Anna Thorvaldsd ttir's Dream, a quiet sound world is born from silence. As she writes: "In each chord there is a world of collective sounds where the small particles dissolve and create their own world." Also on the programme, S怀unn Thorsteinsd ttir plays some works for solo cello and movements from a new album from Bကra G퀀slad ttir. Haukur T masson: From Darkness Woven Pကll Ragnar Pကlsson: Quake Valgeir Sigurdsson: Eighteen Hundred & Seventy-Five Anna Thorvaldsd ttir: Dreaming S怀unn Thorsteinsd ttir (cello) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rumon Gamba (conductor) Also tonight, some Icelandic works for solo cello and movements from Bကra G퀀slad ttir's Mass for double bass, voice and electronics, a work which, she says, she had to write 'to save my sanity. ހur퀀 | |
Xenakis, Julian Anderson | 20090905 | In conversation with composer Julian Anderson, Ivan Hewett intoduces recordings made at the 2009 Total Immersion days at the Barbican in London. Including a performance of Iannis Xenakis' Persephassa for percussion, and student works for octet inspired by Xenakis, Stockhausen and Tristan Murail. Plus a recording of Julian Anderson's Poetry Nearing Silence, inspired by a book of drawings and poems by artist Tom Phillips. Xenakis: Persephassa 29:36 Guildhall Percussion Ensemble Richard Benjafield (director) Jane Hebberd: Schism 5:52 Aaron Holloway-Nahum: as our shadows tremble on the walls... 7:53 Edward Nesbit: Quartet for Eight 6:05 Carol Ella (viola) Anneke Hodnett (harp) Tamsy Kaner (cello) Nicholas Korth (horn) Naomi Pitts (clarinet) Hannah Stone (harp) Alison Teale (cor anglais) Kate Walter (flute) Caz Wolfson (percussion) Pierre-Andre Valade (conductor) Julian Anderson: Poetry Nearing Silence 15:22 Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Martyn Brabbins (conductor). Ivan Hewett introduces works by Xenakis, Julian Anderson, Jane Hebberd and others. Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions |