We’re really proud to announce the release of Sibelius 2018.4, making huge steps forward in many areas of the program. In summary, we’ve expanded on the recently added multi-edit workflows to now include the ability to enter and edit multiple text objects; given our note spacing rules a complete overhaul; enhanced the way you can interact with tied notes and much more, spanning over 70 individual improvements.
A belated ‘happy birthday’ to Samuel Adler, who celebrated his 90th birthday on 4th March. Some composers will know him best from his widely used treatise The Study of Orchestration, but he has also had an impressive (and ongoing) composition career.
You can read an excellent interview with the composer (the first of two) by David Dupont, here.
Canadian composer Robert Joseph Rosen died on Monday 19th March in Ottawa. He was 61.
Rosen studied in Canada with Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth and Bruce Mather. He attended the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt in 1982, later working at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, where he formed associations with Witold Lutoslawski, John Cage, Heinz Holliger and others.
His output includes electroacoustic music, concert, dance, film music and site-specific environmental compositions for groups that include Pro Coro Canada, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, the Vancouver New Music Society and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. He was also won or was a finalist in a number of Canadian composition competitions.
A memorial will be held on April 15th at 1:00pm, details available here.
Young Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson goes from success to success. Fresh from scoring the hit film Black Panther, he has just been confirmed as the composer for Sony’s new Marvel film Venom. And this after a long list of other credits including several U.S. sitcoms and the films 30 Minutes or Less, Fruitvale Station and Creed.
If there’s a British composer on a roll at the moment, it’s Philip Venables. His first major opera, a setting of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, premiered in 2016 at the Royal Opera House to rave reviews, subsequently winning a British Composer Award; his concert piece The Gender Agenda, ‘a gameshow for ensemble, video and gameshow host’, will reopen the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12th April, with subsequent performances in Frankfurt, Porto and Amsterdam; and his new portrait CD Below the Belt, has just been released on NMC.
Four vocal works dominate the album—The Revenge of Miguel Cotto; Numbers 76–80, Tristan and Isolde;Numbers 91-95; and Illusions—with two instrumental pieces—Klaviertrio im Geiste and Metamorphoses After Britten (the four movements of which are distributed throughout)—satisfyingly breaking things up.
There’s an obsessiveness to Venables’ music, a determination to extract every last ounce of energy from a musical idea. The result can be visceral, incredibly direct. In its most distilled and elegant form this can be heard in the piano trio, where motives are developed with compelling economy, even to the point where the first movement is simply marked ‘Tacet.’ The vocal works also have their elegant touches (the use of live cassette recording in Numbers 76–80 being a good example), but here the directness can also be shocking. Texts are chanted by voices together, musical figures are obsessed over until they burn out and, if you also check-out live video performances (a must), there are striking visual touches, such as the slapping of boxing punch bags in The Revenge of Miguel Cotto and the video projection in Illusions (below). This last work is, to my mind, a magnificent achievement: bold, brave, filthy, thought-provoking and outrageously funny. The disk marks, then, the arrival of a major talent. Don’t miss it.
Other than the Venables album (see above) NMC have just released a programme of music by Brian Ferneyhough performed by Exaudi and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The title work, La Terre est un Homme, an epic and densely written work for 88 instruments, is worth the price of the disk alone. It caused something of scandal at its premiere inGlasgow in 1979, and was subsequently rarely played. Martyn Brabbins’ performance is brutally exciting and does a remarkable job of making sense of the dense polyphonic writing (the score is 4 feet tall…).
If this is a little intense, why not try out Magnar Åm’s The Broken Vessel on Ravello Records, a series of compositions/improvisations in an abandoned Norwegian factory that makes use of ‘everything from the acoustics in the building to the muffled sounds of traffic outside its walls.’ The results are surprisingly evocative, as if the vibrations of the instruments are giving voice to the old building.
More Zen still, if you’re in the mood for cosmic length, is Morton Feldman’s For John Cage for violin and piano in a new release that forms volume 6 in Bridge Records’ Feldman series. Typical of late Feldman, the work is massively spun out, with small, seemingly inconsequential, musical ideas (most of which barely rise above a whisper) explored over its 70 minute timeframe. Even so, it casts quite a spell, especially when performed, as here, with the requisite concentration.
In April Borough New Music arrives at Series 7 in its mammoth cycle of contemporary music concerts. On 3rd there are works for combinations of soprano, countertenor and piano by George Crumb, HK Gruber, Ross Edwards and Julian Grant; the 10th features music by a single composer Edward Henderson, who is known for his use of founds sounds, found objects, repetition and audience participation; on 17th there are improvisations for saxophone and piano; whilst 24th features new music and theatre from the Windup Penguin Theatre Company. All the concerts are held on Tuesdays at 1pm in the very central St. George the Martyr Church, London. Ideal lunchtime fare.
Late Music season kicks off
In York, meanwhile, Late Music’s new season kicks off with two concerts on April 7th. At 1pm the Fairfax Ensemble traces the story of Late Music itself, from the 1980s to the present. It will include world premieres from Emily Rowan, Natalie King, Roger Marsh, Tim Brooks and Nick WIlliams. At 7pm, meanwhile, Atéa Wind Quintet will premiere works by David Lancaster and Angela Slater (who runs a concert series of her own) as well as works by Gary Carpenter, Thea Mustrave, Berio, Ligeti and Birtwistle. Late Music’s season of contemporary music concerts continues all the way to October, so be sure to have a look at their programme.
Andrea Tarrodi Weekend
From 12th–15th the Konserthuset Stockholm will host a mini festival dedicated to Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi, whose music is known for its ‘colourful richness and peculiar play of light.’ The festival includes four world premieres: Wildwoods for orchestra and a new Piano Concerto Stellar Clouds on 12th (both repeated on 14th); Acanthes, Concerto for two violins and strings on 13th; and "Drache-Frau" (the wounded diva) for brass quintet 15th. As well as other works by Tarrodi, there will be pieces by Schoenberg and Debussy.
First performances
Finally, my pick of April’s world premieres, starting in the UK. 12th April sees the London Sinfonietta give first performance of Philip Venables’ The Gender Agenda, described as ‘A concert piece like no other, The Gender Agenda will turn the Queen Elizabeth Hall into a gameshow and the audience into contestants’; on 15th the NYOS and pianist James Willshire give the first performance of Scottish composer Jay Capperwauld’s new piano concerto at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall; also on 15th at the Royal Festival Hall there is the chance to hear works by Solvenian composer Vito Žuraj, including the world premiere of his Ubuquity - farces for soprano and ensemble; at the Barbican on 19th, finally, Simon Rattle and the LSO take on Helen Grime’s Woven Space.
In the US on 6th at Carnegie Hall the American Composers Orchestra will give three world premieres, Hitoma Oba’s September Coming, Ethan Iverson’s Concerto to Scale and Steve Lehman’s Ten Threshold Studies, as well as two New York premieres. In Europe, meanwhile, Péter Wolf’s new Clarinet Concerto will be played by Csaba Klenyán at the Liszt Academy on 7th; a new String Trio by Jukka Tiensuu will receive its first performance by ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen at the Konserthuset on 9th; and Johannes Jansson’s Peace Symphonywill be played by Sveriges Radio Symfoniorkester at the Berwaldhallen, Sweden on 13th.
Christian Morris talks to composer Sadie Harrison, whose work has been performed internationally and widely recorded. She is also known for her cross-cultural collaborative projects.
Sadie Harrison
Tell us a little about your background. How did you become a composer?
Firstly, thanks very much for asking me to contribute to Composition:Today. It's taken me quite a while to formulate answers to some of the questions - partly because I am lucky enough to have a couple of commissions on the boil at the moment but also because the opportunity has come at a time when I am thinking very hard about the path my composing has taken me on recently and, indeed, after 35 years of writing, where it might lead me next. And if I am to be honest, I do find it rather hard to discuss my work, though I am often called on to do so. My non-musician friends will tell you that composition is not something that I talk about (though they are always interested), and generally I choose not to tell people that I do it at all in order to avoid difficult questions that simply cannot be answered in a few words. I am also mindful of a comment made by Frederic Rzewski in a pre-concert talk (2012 Late Music York) when he was asked why he didn't like programme notes: 'they are vomit bags for composers!' Although I took offence at quite a lot of what Rzewski said that night, I did sympathise with his dislike of unhelpful verbosity. With this in mind, rather than contribute answers for every question I've suggested some sources for more information about specific projects as I'm going along. And there's a lot of information on my website http://www.sadieharrisoncomposer.co.uk or publisher: http://www.uymp.co.uk
I can definitely say that I became a composer. I wasn't born one. Although music was a big part of my childhood (taking piano and violin lessons, being part of local youth orchestras), the urge to compose did not manifest itself until I went to Surrey University as an undergraduate in the early 1980s. I remember the exact moment when it happened, during a lecture about Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, in particular Der Kranke Mond. I had an overwhelming visceral reaction to the piece. I immediately understood the language and wanted to write music like it. And I thought I could - something just clicked, a kind of coming home. This is a dramatic statement, but I have come to realise that I have always been searching for the right place for my music to inhabit since that moment. It's a complicated search with directions changing over time, but it has been governed by developing what I hope is a strong, flexible compositional technique and an acceptance of the style of the music I want to write. Perhaps most importantly it has been about understanding how my music can resonate usefully outside the confines of the contemporary music world, a world that I have often felt very at odds with.
A section from my current biography reads: 'For several years, Sadie also pursued a secondary career as an archaeologist and reflecting her interest in the past, many of her compositions have been inspired by the traditional musics of old and extant cultures with cycles of pieces based on the folk music of Afghanistan, Lithuania, the Isle of Skye, the Northern Caucasus and the UK. She is also well known for socio-political aspects of music-making with several works challenging stereotypes of marginalised peoples - refugees, Afghan women, the deaf, the homeless - celebrating their creativity and individuality with powerful expressions of musical solidarity.'
Croatian composer, conductor and teacher Milko Kelemen died on 8th March in Stuttgart. He was 93.
Kelemen was a composition pupil of Stjepan Šulek, later studying in Paris with Messiaen and Tony Aubin and Freiburg with Wolfgang Fortner.
He held academic posts at Düsseldorf Conservatory and the Stuttgart Musikhochschule. He also founded the Zaghreb Biennale.
Rudolf Lück and Koraljka Kos divide the composer’s style into three periods: ‘an early corpus – Piano Sonata (1954) to Études contrapuntiques (1959) – written in a style influenced by folk music; an avant-garde period during which Kelemen experimented with musical structure; and, from Grand jeu (1982) onwards, a period marked by his discovery of a new, personal use of intervals and harmony. This last phase also assimilated earlier stylistic changes.’ (New Grove Online)
Kelemen was the recipient of many awards, including a Humboldt Scholarship, the Beethoven Prize of Bonn, an ISCM prize, the Vladimier Zazor Prize and the French Chevalier des Art et des Lettres.
The interface between music, engineering and the life sciences is an ongoing area of research at Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR). ‘Decoding Life’, the theme of this year’s Contemporary Music Festival (2–4th March) is, then, a celebration of this research. Not all of the events involve music, but three are definitely worth checking out: on 4th Ensemble Bash premiere new works by ICCMR composers, Williams, Gimenes and Miranda, plus 2018’s guest composer and music technology pioneer, Archer Endrich; on 4th there are works all inspired by life, both terrestrialand extra-terrestrial, by Richard Abbott,Alexis Kirke and Núria Bonet; and, on the same day, there is a cinematic piece of electronic music by ICCMR post-graduate research student Alan D Miles which attempts to capture and explore the experiences of epilepsy.
Zeit für Neue Musik in Bayreuth, Germany starts on the same day as Decoding Life but runs, albeit intermittently, until 11th. The emphasis is on mainstream continental (including Russian) composers, both alive and recently deceased. Highlights include a concert featuring piano compositions by Robert H.P. Platz, which will include the use of computer manipulated sound; pianist Olga Andryushchenko playing works from the former Soviet Union; and the world premiere of a new work by Leipzig-based composer Günter Neubert.
Archipel (15th–25th) in Geneva, Switzerland lists a total of thirteen intriguing festival themes, including Anagrams and Lipograms, Mechanical Shoes, Cursed Moloch, Machina Humana and Geek Music. They can all be explored here (click the flag top right for English). The festival includes many Swiss premieres and thirteen world premieres from composers Alexandre Babel, Gonzalo Bustos, Stefano Gervasoni, Céline Hänni, Wolfgang Heiniger, David Hudry, Mischa Käser, Masahiro Miwa, Javier Muñoz Bravo, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Michael Pelzel, Alberto Posadas and Martin Riches.
In contrast the London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music (21st–25th) has just three themes: Japanese music, composers from countries on the Baltic coastline, and the music of Luciano Berio. The first of these includes works by Toru Takemitsu, Yûta Bandoh, Misato Mochizuki, Kotoka Suzuki, Shintaro Imai and Toshio Hosokawa; the second by Dobromiła Jaskot, Dariusz Pryzbylski, Arturas Bumšteinas, Gailė Griciūtė and Martin Stauning and Erkki-Sven Tüür. The Berio thread is also a rich one, with 12 works on offer, including a number of his Sequenzas. There will also be the opportunity to hear Berio’s widow, Talia Pecker Berio, in conversation with Andrew Kurowski and the Festival Directors. Aside from these themes there are a number of works from British composers and a total of 18 world premieres.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Contemporary Music category goes, in this tenth edition, to Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho on the basis of “a contribution to contemporary music that is extraordinary in its individuality, breadth and scope.” From her earliest works, the jury continues, Saariaho has exhibited “a seamless interweaving of the worlds of acoustic music and technology,” a quality which the new laureate remarked, after hearing of the award, had come to her quite naturally. When she started studying music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, she was frustrated at the acoustics of the venues she would attend to hear live performances. Wondering if it was possible to alter characteristics like the volume of the instruments, she began recording them and processing the sound for subsequent playback.
Meanwhile Ernst Von Siemens prizes of $40,000 each have been awarded to Clara Iannotta (Italy), Timothy McCormack (USA) and Oriol Saladrigues (Spain).
Hungarian composer László Melis died on 12th February. He was 65.
Melis studied the violin at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, before performing extensively as a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble Group 180.
As a composer Melis was best known for his music for film, winning awards for the animated film A szél ("The Wind") and Gyurmatek ("Clay Play”) and composing the music for László Nemes’s directorial debut Son of Saul, a widely acclaimed film that follows a Hungarian Jew tasked with managing the disposal of bodies at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Minimalist in style, Melis’s compositions can be found on BMC and Hungaroton record labels. Many are also available on YouTube.
Icelandic composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson died suddenly at his apartment on 9th February. He was just 48. He is best known for his film scores, including Prisoners (2013), The Theory of Everything (2014) Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016) and The Mercy (2017). At his death he was working on the score for an animated film, Christopher Robin, based upon the Winnie the Pooh stories.
Jóhannsson also wrote music for theatre, dance and television and released a series of ten solo albums beginning in 2002. The last of these, Orphée (inspired by the Orpheus myth) was released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2016.
Born in Reykjavik, Iceland Jóhannsson learned piano and trombone before going on to study languages and literature. His composing life began as a guitarist in Indie bands using ‘feedback-drenched guitar figures to create multi-layered soundscapes.’ Later encounters with Brian Eno’s Obscure Records albums led to a change of direction: ‘I set the guitar aside and started writing music for strings, woodwinds and chamber ensemble, combining acoustic and electronic sounds.’ His distinctive style, a fusion of traditional and electronic elements, was born.
It was a style that won many plaudits, including a Golden Globe for Best Original Film Score (The Theory of Everything) and Oscar nominations for Sicario and Arrival.
At the end of his life, Jóhannsson was living and working in Berlin. He is survived by his daughter Karolina Johannsdottir.
After updating C:T’s opportunity page today, I came across this article by Norman Lebrecht over at Slipped Disk. It describes how this week’s Singapore Violin Competition has effectively been rigged, since the grand finalists are all students of members of the jury. He goes as far as to suggest that the other violinists who entered ‘should hire a lawyer and sue for the return of their expenses. They would be setting an important precedent.’
Whilst such extremes examples of nepotism are to be decried, we might as well admit to ourselves that blander, but no less pernicious, forms of favouritism have long existed in the musical world, including in composing. I certainly know of composers who have been awarded prizes or opportunities by teachers and, I might as well say it, I have probably benefited from this type of patronage myself. The phrase ‘it’s who you know’ could not be more relevant in a career with so many practitioners chasing so few opportunities.
There are of course things that competitions can do to increase the chance that the competition will be fair, especially by asking that scores are submitted anonymously. Probably about half of all competitions I post month in, month out here at C:T do this. Whilst this is not a panacea—it’s not difficult, after all, for a judge on a panel to recognise a score written by a student, even if it has no name on it—it does limit the chances of a Singapore-style stitch-up.
Beyond this I’m not sure how much more can be done. Music-making is a social activity, so it’s perfectly natural that you are more likely to get musicians with whom you have a relationship to help you. Is that really nepotism? I don’t think so. Unless you are a composer that doesn’t mind being discovered after you’re dead, you have to get out, meet people. There is nothing heroic about sitting in a lonely composing studio expecting the world to come genuflecting to your door.
A final thought on competitions, which arose from an email we received here at C:T a couple of weeks ago. It was from a composer who was worried that one of the composer opportunities posted on our opportunities page was a scam—it required money up front and in a currency different from where the website was based, the website itself was amateurish and the name of the competition organiser did not seem to appear elsewhere on the web. There was no definitive answer we could give since the competition did not differ greatly from many others posted here; many competitions ask for money up-front, some are from newcomers who may not be great at website design and even the currency problem may have had a simple explanation.
This doesn’t stop me worrying about the veracity of the compositions we list here in good faith. In one competition last year, for example, entrants were not asked to pay a fee, but when the winner was selected he was asked for $19,000 towards the cost of performing the piece. You could argue that that does not matter, since he could simply refuse, but imagine his frustration if he’d written the piece specifically for the competition.
It is, then, incumbent upon us all to exercise caution and a healthy scepticism when entering composition competitions. Like the entrants in the Singapore Violin Competition, we can’t protect ourselves from the nepotism of jury members, but we don’t have to believe every promise we read or pay every exorbitant entry fee. The same approach, essentially, as when buying a used car. Buyer beware.
If you want to hear the best of emerging composer talent in the UK, take a look at Making Music’s Adopt a Composer programme.
The scheme has run since 2000 and pairs the best of the UK’s emerging composing talent with amateur choirs, orchestras and ensembles for a year. Together they produce a new composition of about ten minutes in length, which is then broadcast on Radio 3.
The pieces by the class of 2016/17 were premiered between 22nd and 26th January and will be available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days. More simply, you can hear all of the pieces, and those from previous years, here:
The 2017/18 scheme is well under way, the chosen composers and their groups being:
You can learn more about how they are getting on in blogs they are posting on the Making Music Website, the two most recent being by Anna Appelby and Max Charles Davies. It’s also worth reading about the project from the perspective of the amateur groups—it’s clear that they are finding the collaborations just as rewarding as the composers.
If you are interested in getting involved, the next round of applications for the scheme will open in March, for both composers and amateur groups.
Christian Morris talks to composer Nigel Osborne, who was recently been awarded the British Composer Award for Inspiration in recognition of his human rights work.
Nigel Osborne
Your early composing followed a well-established trajectory - study at Oxford and abroad, several prestigious prizes, and academic posts in Nottingham then Edinburgh. Then, in 1992, you travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina following the outbreak of hostilities there. What motivated this decision?
In some ways I was simply getting on with what I had done before. At the point I began to work in Bosnia, I had been involved in human rights activities for over 20 years. I had of course been a member of the "'68 generation", and although I thought many of the student protest movements of the time lacked serious political purpose, I had taken part in demonstrations, particularly about the Vietnam war, and had become closely involved, for various reasons and in various ways, in the unfolding of events in both Northern Ireland and Czechoslovakia.
I had been influenced as a very young man by a lecture Sartre had given in the Club Maintenant in Paris in October 1945 - Existentialism and Humanism. Two things in the lecture had shaped the way I thought at the time. The first was the idea that we build what we become from what we are - in other words that we invent ourselves from the most raw of human materials and are responsible for the person we become and what we do; and that by understanding the nature of our own consciousness, we understand everyone else. This was the basis of a very young man's intellectual leftism.
This year Radio France’s Festival Présences (6th–11th February) celebrates the music of composer, organist and improvisor Thierry Escaich. As well as performances of existing works, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France will give the world premiere of a newly commissioned piece. Many other composer-performers will be also be represented, including Wolfgang Mitterer, Michaël Levinas, Lionel Bord, Laurent Cuniot, Benoît Mernier, Thierry Pécou, Burkhard Stangl, Karol Beffa, Eva Reiter and John Zorn.
The concerts take place at Radio France, Paris, principally in Studio 104. The full programme is available, here.
In the UK, Thea Musgrave, now in her 90th year, will visit the Royal Northern College of Music on 1st and 2nd February. There will be the opportunity to hear her in conversation with Clark Rundell, as well as three concerts. These will include seven of her own works, including the world premiere of From Darkness into Light played by the BBC Philharmonic, as well as premieres from Edgar Divver and Robin Wallington.
Other premieres this month include the first UK outing for George Walker’s Icarus in Orbitplayed by the BBCSO at the Barbican on 9th; the world premiere of Mark Bowden’s Three Interludes with BBCNOW at Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff on 21st; and new works by Helen Grime on 15th and Joseph Phibbs on 23rd at Wigmore Hall. Also at Hoddinott Hall are three concerts that will explore new orchestral works by up-and-coming emerging Welsh composers. These take place on 1st, 22nd and 23rd.
Lovers of music theatre will want to make time for Satyagraha, Philip Glass’s opera based on Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, tracing the progress of his concept of non-violent protest as a positive force for change. Performances run from 1st–7th Feb at ENO. At the Royal Opera House, meanwhile, Joby Talbot’s ballet The Winter’s Tale will be performed from 13th Feb–21st March.
Whilst last year marked the centenary of the birth of Scottish composer Geraldine Mucha, 2018 will see further celebrations of her life and work.
Mucha was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1945 she moved to Prague with her husband Jiři Mucha, son of the world-renowned Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha. Although her music was performed in Czechoslovakia by leading ensembles, it remains largely unknown in the UK, a consequence of the many years she spent behind the Iron Curtain.
In 2017 a new recording of Macbeth and Other Orchestral Works was released via ArcoDiva and featured her ballet Macbeth (1965), Overture to The Tempest (1963) and Piano Concerto (1961); and, in November, a special centenary concert included her two String Quartets and pieces for Chamber Orchestra, performed by the Stamic Quartet and others.
Many years ago I visited the astonishing ruins at Delphi on the Greek Peloponnese. At the end of the visit I went tiredly round the museum, looking at the many interesting if rather worthy exhibits. At the end, having left the building, I suddenly realised that I had missed one of the most important items, the First Delphic Hymn. It is the oldest surviving example of musical notation by a named composer, inscribed on a stone slab found at the site. Of course, I went back to find it. When I did the experience was unexpectedly moving. Genesis.
It comes, therefore, as no surprise to me that musicians might be moved to use ancient works as a basis for a musical project. The album Ancient Greece, Musical Inspirations, featuring guitarist Rody Van Gemert and harpsichordist Assi Karttunen is just such a project.
It is an exceptionally well thought-out programme of music, using not just the First Delphic Hymn but also two versions of the oldest surviving complete musical composition, the Seikilos Epitaph, as a frame. Around this are inserted works by Graham Lynch, Harry Partch, Maurice Ravel and Matthew Whittall. The modern works (which, in this context, includes Ravel) are all inspired in some way by the ancient world. Whether because of the redolence of the Greek theme, the felicitousness of the instrumentation or the exotic quality of the music (often rendered strange by the use of unusual tunings), the result is intoxicating. To listen is to gaze once more at that ancient stone.
Navona Records, a subsidiary of PARMA Recordings, has a very healthy back-catalogue that includes many recordings of contemporary music. They have five upcoming releases, all of which can be previewed on their website or on streaming services: Music in the Listening Place, choral works sung by the Vanderbilt University Chorale; Prisma, contemporary works by Lionel Sainsbury, Clive Muncaster, Patricia Julien, and J. A. Kawarsky; Young Prometheus, featuring works by Mark Volker; Small Stones, Modern Piano Musicplayed by Nancy Zipay Desalvo; and Formika, a collection of chamber by Mexican composer Felipe Pérez Santiago.
NMC are currently running a 20% reduction on their annual subscription, which means if you pay now you’ll get all of their 2018 releases at a bargain price. They also continue two of their recent projects this month with releases of Ray Lee’s sound artwork Ring Outin their New Music Biennial series and a new collection of Next Waves works by young composers Emma Wilde, Peter Wilson, Alex J Hall, Jack Sheen, Joanna Ward and Robin Haigh.
There are three new contemporary music albums on Naxos: a collection of choral works by Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen; String Quartets 5–7 by Richard Danielpour; and The Core-Set Project, in which Dame Evelyn Glennie’s ensemble offers a programme of fourteen improvised pieces that ‘push the boundaries of spontaneous music-making.’ Hyperion has released the first two of Tippett’s four symphonies, recorded by Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Number two, especially, is a marvellous work, a must-listen if you don’t know it. They have also released a disk of three concertos by Aaron Jay Kernis, performed by Royal Northern Sinfonia under Rebecca Miller. Bridge, finally, have released Rube Goldberg Variations, an album of chamber music by Dmitri Tymoczko; and Morton Feldman’s For John Cage, for violin and piano, one of a series of works he write dedicated to other artists.
Christian Morris
From the 
If there’s a British composer on a roll at the moment, it’s Philip Venables. His first major opera, a setting of Sarah Kane’s 
Other than the Venables album (see above) NMC have just released 
In April 
In York, meanwhile, 
Icelandic composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson died suddenly at his apartment on 9th February. He was just 48. He is best known for his film scores, including 
After updating C:T’s opportunity page today, I came across 
If you want to hear the best of emerging composer talent in the UK, take a look at Making Music’s 
This year Radio France’s Festival Présences (6th–11th February) celebrates the music of composer, organist and improvisor Thierry Escaich. As well as performances of existing works, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France will give the world premiere of a newly commissioned piece. Many other composer-performers will be also be represented, including Wolfgang Mitterer, Michaël Levinas, Lionel Bord, Laurent Cuniot, Benoît Mernier, Thierry Pécou, Burkhard Stangl, Karol Beffa, Eva Reiter and John Zorn.
Many years ago I visited the astonishing ruins at Delphi on the Greek Peloponnese. At the end of the visit I went tiredly round the museum, looking at the many interesting if rather worthy exhibits. At the end, having left the building, I suddenly realised that I had missed one of the most important items, the