Pre-Hear: Saturday 11th June 2011

[hackneyvi]

I'm listening live and very much liking the fizz and variety in the often shrill, sometimes rattling first piece for the Arditti quartet, Olga Neuwith's In the realms of the unreal (somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes).

I can imagine that it will sound to some to alot of modern string quartet cliches but I found it really invigorating and sometimes lovely, even in its more brutal moments (though it absolutely doesn't sound like 'hostile' music, does sound like music lover's music to me).

I've noted hints of mandolin, tape effects, tearful drunken woodwind descents, raucous swoopings of swallows, glass-like ringing, overblown harmonicas. A quite (sorry!) Tipett-ian drive though with less melody; some woozy tenderness interrupted by a dance of chirps; now almost Xenakis-sy electronics, some grand gravellings, vocalisms of complaint, a last shrill of electronics, a snapped pluck and - applause.

Really good!

Mauricio Kagel's Les Inventions d'Adolphe Sax (UK Premiere) is for a choir and saxophone quartet. I like some of its saxophonic bobbings with the choir but the periods of instrumental music appeal to me more. Then, lo and behold!, there's a short section of soft sax and hushes from the choir. The more it goes on, the more the choir and the horns seem to blend and converge. I don't know Sax's music but this piece has a hint of Ravel and Poulenc (to an idiot like me) in its distinctly French-seeming music full of great effects and humour.

[Rowan Tree]

I, too, enjoyed last night's Pre-Hear and H&N. It was my first experience of Neuwith's music but I very much enjoyed "In the Realms of the Unreal" which I intend to get to know this week via Listen Again. I am very keen on Kagel's work and I heard his homage to the inventor of the Saxaphone as an amusing,"secular" companion to his "Sankt Bach Passion". I find all Kagel's work witty, thought-provoking and at times-as in the Passion and "Ludvig van"- very moving.
Like hackneyvi I have to admit enjoying the music of the lesser-known Danish composers on H&N a good deal more than I did the Norgard.

[hackneyvi]

I, too, enjoyed last night's Pre-Hear and H&N. It was my first experience of Neuwith's music but I very much enjoyed "In the Realms of the Unreal" which I intend to get to know this week via Listen Again. I am very keen on Kagel's work and I heard his homage to the inventor of the Saxaphone as an amusing,"secular" companion to his "Sankt Bach Passion". I find all Kagel's work witty, thought-provoking and at times-as in the Passion and "Ludvig van"- very moving.
Like hackneyvi I have to admit enjoying the music of the lesser-known Danish composers on H&N a good deal more than I did the Norgard.

I'd not heard of either of the Pre-Hear composers but they shared a diversity of tone and contrast that seemed to be aware of the audience. They both seemed to show some humanity in their music. In my mind, this contrasted distinctly with the London Sinfonietta performances at Pavilions a week or to ago where displays of competent (or incompetent) mechanics seemed to be the main aim.

I'm starting to think I may want to go to Huddersfield this year because I've encountered several composers recently from their rolls that I'd like to have heard live.

I must confess that the H & N was less my cup of tea but I'll hope to have a go at all of the shorter pieces over the next week.

[hackneyvi]

I, too, enjoyed last night's Pre-Hear and H&N. It was my first experience of Neuwith's music but I very much enjoyed "In the Realms of the Unreal" which I intend to get to know this week via Listen Again.

I'd like to urge fellow 'boarders' to take a listen to the Neuwith piece. I've just listened a second time and it's, to me, a simply knockout, purely enjoyable piece; quite formal, in a way, with as much song and dance as Haydn, enormous daintiness in some exquisite high string sounds and a plethora of well-used effects. It begins with a familiar rough gesture but almost immediately moves to an unexpected rhythmic music. I tapped my toe through alot of this (though whether I was keeping time is anyone's guess).

Truly appetising, fresheningly joyful and lovely.

I am very keen on Kagel's work and I heard his homage to the inventor of the Saxaphone as an amusing,"secular" companion to his "Sankt Bach Passion". I find all Kagel's work witty, thought-provoking and at times-as in the Passion and "Ludvig van"- very moving.
Like hackneyvi I have to admit enjoying the music of the lesser-known Danish composers on H&N a good deal more than I did the Norgard.

I hadn't caught the opening minutes of the prog and didn't know that the text the choir were singing was Sax's patent for the saxohpone! This merits another listen, too, once I'm ready to come in out of the sunshine of the Neuwith quartet.

[hackneyvi]

I've noted hints of ... full of great effects and humour.

And an (Hawaiian?) weeping (pedal steel?) guitar.

Gorgeous.

[hackneyvi]

Listening for a third time, I see this may be a bit of a 'pop' piece with it's focus on effects but I still find it an easy and welcome enjoyment.

You've got 60 hours left to hear it, pop-pickers. The countdown starts here ...

[hackneyvi]

It's taken a while to get hold of but I bought a disc of Olga Neuwirth's Chamber Works on Kairos. What a wonderful, scratchy racket! I love the abrasiveness of this music, it makes my mouth water it's so dry. To play only the part of the string which runs along the neck of a violin or only the little hammers and strings of a piano is to use only a part of the instruments' potential for making hearty sounds.

The Arditti quartet and their fellow players are M!arvellous!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Arditti quartet and their fellow players are M!arvellous!

... and if you do manage to get up to Huddersfield this November, you can hear them with Ian Pace performing the complete Xenakis Chamber Music for Strings with and without Piano (St Paul's Hall, Fri 25th Nov).

There'll probably be the usual stall of CDs and scores from Forsythe's if you wish to explore Neuwirth's other KAIROS discs.

[hackneyvi]

... and if you do manage to get up to Huddersfield this November, you can hear them with Ian Pace performing the complete Xenakis Chamber Music for Strings with and without Piano (St Paul's Hall, Fri 25th Nov).

There'll probably be the usual stall of CDs and scores from Forsythe's if you wish to explore Neuwirth's other KAIROS discs.

Welcome, ferneyhoughgeliebte. I'm not sure if it'll happen or not but I hope so.

To anyone who might be interested, Olga Neuwirth (I keep wanting to say "Corbett") night at QEH on 11th February 2012 - http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/...-olga-neuwirth I'd strongly recommend this woman's music to everyone here because all that I've heard so far - 7 pieces, I think - has been interesting and well-made and often funny, lovely.

[Serial_Apologist]

... and if you do manage to get up to Huddersfield this November, you can hear them with Ian Pace performing the complete Xenakis Chamber Music for Strings with and without Piano (St Paul's Hall, Fri 25th Nov).

There'll probably be the usual stall of CDs and scores from Forsythe's if you wish to explore Neuwirth's other KAIROS discs.

Well hellooOOOOOOOoooooooooo again!

Where have you been all this time? You've been much missed!