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#10 • 24.05.2016
“The assumption is often that music is used to drown out other sounds of torture; in fact, music is an additional weapon used against prisoners.”
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Collection: Brian Ferneyhough at 75
To celebrate the 75th birthday of Coventry-born composer Brian Ferneyhough, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group has invited the pioneering Arditti Quartet to perform his music in the heart of the Midlands. Also featuring Oliver Janes on clarinet and the conductor Emilio Pomarico, a concert on December Sunday, December 9 at 4 p.m. will present works by Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Charlotte Bray and Michael Wolters.
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An interview with Brian Ferneyhough.
Kampela on Ferneyhough’s “La terre est un homme” and other strange, beautiful music.
“When you follow Ferneyhough, well, you are going to be alone with your music.”
British musicians, including the composer Charlotte Bray, reckon with the triggering of Article 50.
Video of the Week
Aretha Franklin
Imagine that Pavarotti had actually felt well enough to give his scheduled performance of “Nessun Dorma” at the 1998 GRAMMY’s. It’s likely that nothing remarkable would have happened, Pavarotti probably would have received an obligatory-but-milquetoast standing ovation, and the world would have moved on. But that’s not what happened. Instead, we, the undeserving, were gifted this monstrous performance by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. It is simultaneously a flawless rendition and a giant “screw-you” to anyone who thinks genre distinctions make something like this impossible. Franklin passed away on August 16, 2018.
Audio of the Week
Ribbon Chert
Pink Sea Thrift is a collection of pieces by the iconic American composer Ellen Fullman in duo with David Gamper, an original member of Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band. These ecstatic and mesmerizing improvisations were recorded in the resonant gym of the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California. The album also includes two tracks of Ellen Fullman in duo with founding member of Deep Listening Band, Stuart Dempster, on trombone and didjeridu.
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