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2024-03-25
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2024-02-12 07:56:00
Magnum Opus: Britten Sinfonia's composer development scheme showcases work from 2023 composers David John Roche, Daniel Soley and Crystalla Serghiou
Magnum Opus Composers 2023: David John Roche, Daniel Soley and Crystalla SerghiouNorwich-based music writer, Tony Cooper, reports on Britten Sinfonia’s enterprising Magnum Opus development programme for composers.Each year three composers ready to take a significant leap forward in their blossoming careers are selected for Britten Sinfonia’s headline development programme entitled Magnum Opus made possible by the generous support of the PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner Fund. Applications are submitted in response to an open call viewed anonymously by the scheme’s programme directors. The featured composers comprise David John Roche, Crystalla Serghiou and Daniel Soley who have been embedded with the orchestra over the past year. They wrote wind quintets which were premièred as part of a successful and well-received Britten Sinfonia tour in April last year. Recently, they have composed further substantial chamber concertos to be premièred at the finale event at St Giles’ Cripplegate (close to the Barbican Centre) on Saturday 2nd March […]
2024-02-02 08:18:00
A vivid panorama of Freya Waley-Cohen's compositional interests & techniques: Manchester Collective in Spell Book at the Barbican
Image of Freya Waley-Cohen for Spell Book (courtesy of the Barbican Centre)Spell Book - Freya Waley-Cohen; Héloïse Werner, Fleur Barron, Katie Bray, Manchester Collective; Milton Court, Barbican CentreReviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 1 February 2024Music of true emotional power, direct, forceful and dramatic; it was clear on the strength of these fiery, fully committed performances to hear why the Manchester Collective keep returning to Waley-Cohen's compositionsFreya Waley-Cohen's fruitful and ongoing collaborations with the enthusiastic and engaged musicians of the Manchester Collective led to this concert at the Barbican Centre's Milton Court on 1 February 2024; a retrospective of her work with them over the past five years, including the premieres of her latest compositions for the group. Starting off with her enchanting tone poem Naiad, the bulk of the programme was filled with performances of the songs that make up her ever-growing song cycle Spell Book with soprano Héloïse Werner, and mezzo-sopranos Fleur Barron and Katie […]
2024-01-31 08:37:00
Identity, displacement and homesickness: Raymond Yiu's new violin concerto inspired by the experiences of Chinese violinist and composer, Ma Sicong
Ma Sicong performing for Chinese soldiers at the front during the Korean WarWhen I interviewed composer Raymond Yiu, back in 2021 [see my interview] we touched on his new Violin Concerto which is inspired by the Chinese violinist and composer, Ma Sicong (1912-1987) whose music was banned for 20 years after he escaped to America and wrote about his experiences in China and so was branded a traitor.Raymond Yiu's Violin Concerto will be premiered on 20 March 2024 at the Barbican Centre with violinist Esther Yoo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis [further details]. The concerto is co-commissioned by BBCSO for Radio 3, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony.Ma Sicong was one of the first generation of Chinese composers who went to study in Paris in the 1920s. He has been called ‘The King of Violinists’ in China. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, […]
2023-11-22 07:33:00
Epic re-imagining of Miles Davis’ legendary album 'Bitches Brew' in the first ever performance from super group London Brew
London Brew - EFG London Jazz Festival at the Barbican Centre (Photo: Mark Allan)London Brew: EFG London Jazz Festival at the Barbican CentreReviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 18 November 2023A veritable tsunami of electric jazz from a supergroup of London-based playersBack in the heady days of 1969, a Woodstock-inspired Miles Davis brought together eight leading jazz musicians in an epic three day long, freely improvised, recording session. The result was the monumental double LP Bitches Brew, recognised almost universally as one of the most influential jazz records of all time. In 2020 music publisher Bruce Lampcov, as a tribute to this landmark session, gathered a dozen members of the contemporary London jazz scene - not to recreate the original, but to collectively create something new in the same free, improvisatory spirit. The recorded result of these sessions was released as London Brew in 2020 to great critical acclaim. Three years later, this […]
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