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Tantris
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« on: 14:49:11, 13-07-2008 » |
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I wonder if anyone else reading this board was at Darmstadt this weekend for the Arditti's concerts of the quartets of Brian Ferneyhough? (Not the complete works for string quartet - some of the smaller pieces (Adagissimo and Exordium) were not played, nor was Dum Transisset - but we did get the first quartet (sonatas for string quartet), followed by quartets 2-5.
I've been reasonably well acquainted with these works for a number of years, but it was unusual to hear them in performance in such a concentrated way. A picture emerged, not of an implacable and unapproachable composer, but of a sensitive and very vulnerable man. These quartets are often the most private parts of a diary made public. The sonatas came across as an exercise in structure and colour, and immediately appealing. The second is like the event horizon of a vortex - much incidental activity which is ultimately consumed into a singularity. The third quartet is a fulcrum - its first movement is despairing, only partially resolved in a failed cavatina in its second movement. The fourth quartet has the most intense music, a primordial mix from which the spark of language spontaneously emerges in the fourth movement - but descends to babble and the music dies away. The fifth contains the fragments of lost melodies, half-remembered events, the what-ifs or if-onlies circulating.
I found the concerts inspiring and would be very interested in others' comments, particularly from those who may have been there.
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Tantris
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« Reply #1 on: 15:10:49, 15-07-2008 » |
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No interest?
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time_is_now
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« Reply #2 on: 15:19:42, 15-07-2008 » |
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Lots of interest, Tantris, but I'm afraid I wasn't there.
I believe Member Biroc of the Music&Society boards was there, as I suppose several other members of that board (and Members Turfan Fragment and harmonyharmony of this one?) may have been. Bear in mind that people staying in Darmstadt may not have regular internet access while there.
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #3 on: 18:49:51, 15-07-2008 » |
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I did not go to Ferneyfest so I cannot comment. Was that a dumb decision? Time will tell.
This is not because of a disinterest in Ferneyhough, but a specific disinterest in hearing all five quartets in one day.
This is not because they are "all the same," or because they are in any way redundant, or because they donīt tell an interesting story of evolution. Just that they are too much for me, all in a row.
Dear Tantris, I hope you can make yourself known to me before we go our separate ways from these courses. Send me a PM and I can tell you where to find me, if you donīt already know.
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Tantris
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« Reply #4 on: 21:14:26, 15-07-2008 » |
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Thanks for the replies. I suppose hearing this music in such a concentrated way made me think quite differently about it, which was not what I was expecting.
Turfan Fragment - thank you so much for the offer to meet, but I travelled up from Switzerland just for these concerts, and made my way back the following day - reading 'Der Zauberberg', ironically enough.
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #5 on: 22:44:34, 23-07-2008 » |
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I don't like the second followed by the third. I think that the third is such a special piece that it almost needs to start a programme.
We came up with a number of 'fantasy' orderings in the interval... and other withered stumps of time.
Am feeling too lazy to look this up, but for pedantry's sake, I seem to recall that the Sonatas aren't actually Brian's first quartet. There was a String Quartet no. 1 but he withdrew it. Those interested in typographical inconsistencies might like to contemplate what distinguishes the fifth from the second to fourth quartets.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #6 on: 22:49:10, 23-07-2008 » |
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I believe they're called Second, Third, and Fourth String Quartet, but the next one is called String Quartet No. 5 -- am I right?!
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #7 on: 23:13:53, 23-07-2008 » |
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I believe they're called Second, Third, and Fourth String Quartet, but the next one is called String Quartet No. 5 -- am I right?!
And you get the special edition Darmstadt 2008 marshmallow! |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Evan Johnson
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« Reply #8 on: 23:27:59, 23-07-2008 » |
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I believe they're called Second, Third, and Fourth String Quartet, but the next one is called String Quartet No. 5 -- am I right?!
Really? That's weird. Hmm. On a distantly related note, has anyone actually heard that sonatina (or whatever it is) for four winds that Peters publishes? |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #9 on: 01:06:43, 24-07-2008 » |
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As far as the sonatina goes, I remember someone who ought to know telling me Peters had requested a light educational piece which he had duly written and was then a little peeved to see it out in the world in his main catalogue with no reference to this circumstance. I haven't heard it myself but have seen the dots and they certainly fit the description.
The Peters work list has the quartets as Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, for what it's worth.
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Robert Dahm
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« Reply #10 on: 03:08:09, 24-07-2008 » |
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I encountered those dots for the first time just the other week, and didn't quite understand what I was looking at. My first thought was that it must be another Brian Ferneyhough (b. 1943), but I suspect it's a rather uncommon name. Maybe he's finally trying to connect with The Audience after all of that horrible squawking...  |
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #11 on: 10:48:15, 24-07-2008 » |
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The Peters work list has the quartets as Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, for what it's worth.
I believe that Mr Nomrahy was going on what stood in the Darmstadt programme book, or in the printed concert program itself, or both. He did not refer to the Peters Catalogue, I stink. |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #12 on: 13:05:14, 24-07-2008 » |
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The Peters work list has the quartets as Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, for what it's worth.
I believe that Mr Nomrahy was going on what stood in the Darmstadt programme book, or in the printed concert program itself, or both. He did not refer to the Peters Catalogue, I stink. The printed work list may refer to them as such, but the online work list refers to the fifth as no 5. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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