Chamber Music by Brian Ferneyhough [Single]

Brian Ferneyhough (Artist, Composer), . (Conductor), Caerrado Canonici (Performer), Bridget Carey (Performer), Christopher Redgate (Performer), Ian Pace (Performer), Julkian Warburton (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Caerrado Canonici, Bridget Carey, Christopher Redgate, Ian Pace, Julkian Warburton
• Conductor: .
• Composer: Brian Ferneyhough
• Audio CD (March 10, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Single
• Label: Metier
• ASIN: B001L5KJOU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,463 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ferneyhough is leading the way in England in contemporary classical music by charting such uncharted musical waters as the works represented here. Not trying to make this easy, he likes pushing the envelope, making you pay attention to the journeys he takes everyone on --MidWest Record

Product Description

Award winning, highly respected and totally uncompromising - Brian Ferneyhough is fearless in his quest for new musical structures and boundaries. The works on this CD, all recorded here for the first time, are masterpieces of the modern age. In 'Allgebrah', especially, Ferneyhough demonstrates the inspiration he received from the work of troubled genius artist, Adolf Wölfli, one of whose works we have chosen for the cover art, Courtesy of the Arts Museum, Berne.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A correction, May 15, 2009

By 

Jeremy Glazier (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chamber Music by Brian Ferneyhough (Audio CD)

This is not a review, as I have not yet heard the recordings. However, the "Product Description" above is in error. All but two of the works on this disc have been previously recorded: "Trittico per G.S." appeared on a Naive Montaigne disc (1996/2003) with Stefano Scodanibbio on contrabass; "Flurries," "In Nomine a 3," and "Incipits" appeared on an Ensemble Recherche CD in 2005. It's great to have new versions of these excellent pieces, especially as the other discs are getting harder to find; "Flurries," inspired by an A. R. Ammons poem, is a very strong piece.

As far as I can tell, this IS the first recording of "Coloratura" and "Allgebrah." The music of Brian Ferneyhough is one of the great treasures of the contemporary music scene; hopefully we will have a recording of the 5th string quartet soon. In the meantime, these recordings are welcome.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Ferneyhough works for oboe, July 17, 2011

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chamber Music by Brian Ferneyhough (Audio CD)

Brian Ferneyhough, the British composer long based in California (now at Stanford), has written mainly chamber music, and it can be found on several discs, some now out of print. Nearly all overlap, with various ensembles performing the same works. This 2009 Metier disc is a perfect example -- despite what some have said, all the pieces included here have been recorded before. These performances and recordings are of the Ensemble Expose, a British new music ensemble formed in 1984 to play works by the "New Complexity" school of composers. Ferneyhough has been claimed by this school, though he insists otherwise. Roger Redgate, a co-founder along with Michael Finnissy and Richard Barrett, here conducts the group. His brother Christopher Redgate, a new music specialist, is featured on oboe on three of the works, and that is what makes this disc essential in my view.

"Flurries" (1997 -- 10'31) is longer here than the excellent ensemble recherche recording for Stradivarius, and not nearly as compelling. "Trittico per G.S." (1989 -- 8'56), a solo work for double-bass, is quite fine. The recording of "Incipits" (1997 -- 11'43), this time faster than the ensemble recherche, sounds great, a piece featuring viola, percussion and ensemble.

The three oboe features are grouped together: "Coloratura" (1966 -- 7'20) for oboe and piano, a lovely early work, slower and less challenging than Ferneyhough's characteristic mature works; "In Nomine a 3" (2001 -- 2'36) for piccolo, oboe and clarinet; and finally, the disc's standout number and longest composition, "Allgebrah" (1996 -- 17'46) for oboe and nine strings. The title is the term used by the Swiss schizophrenic artist Adolf Wolfli to refer to the fundamental creative principle. (The disc's cover is a Wolfli painting from 1910.) According to Roger Redgate's liner notes, "the solo oboe...moves through this unstable landscape of independent textures and sudden outbursts seeking to find its own role..."

While overall I would recommend the ensemble recherche disc ("if you could only have one Ferneyhough chamber music disc"), this Ensemble Expose set can be strongly recommended on the strength of "Allgebrah" and Christopher Redgate's oboe!

You may also be interested in Ferneyhough's "thought opera" Shadowtime (see my review).