Michael Finnissy: Beat Generation Ballads

Both have titles provoking awareness that there’s more to music than crochets and quavers...First Political Agenda is a quasi-sonata whose first movement, “Wrong place. Wrong time”, is an explosion... — Sunday Times, 12th June 2016 More…

Release Date: 22nd Jul 2016
Catalogue No: HCR11CD
Label: Huddersfield Contemporary Records (HCR)
Length: 69 minutes

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Finnissy: First Political Agenda

Work length21:43

$4.00

$6.50

$8.75

Philip Thomas (piano)
Recorded: 10 September 2015
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom

I. Wrong Place. Wrong Time.

Track length3:15

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Is There Any Future for New Music?

Track length8:45

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

III. You Know What Kind of Sense Mrs. Thatcher Made.

Track length9:43

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

Finnissy: Beat Generation Ballads

Work length47:33

Album only

Philip Thomas (piano)
Recorded: 10 September 2015
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom

I. Lost but Not Lost

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Naked Original Skin Beneath Our Dreams & Robes of Thought

Track length2:54

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Lonely Banna Strand

Track length6:12

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Evans, Harry, Scott, Hearts Foolish

Track length2:08

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Veränderungen

Track length34:13

Album only

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Released to celebrate composer Michael Finnissy's seventieth year, Beat Generation Ballads presents the premiere recordings of two of Finnissy's recent major piano works - First Political Agenda (1989-2004) and Beat Generation Ballads (2014) - both performed by internationally acclaimed pianist, Phillip Thomas.

"Listeners who have been following closely the music and development of Michael Finnissy over the past half-century, or who are familiar with his wide-ranging and prolific output, will be accustomed to being wrong-footed when hearing a new work. Finnissy is a master of counteracting supposed stylistic traits, continually enlarging his gamut of references, forms and notational practices. The two works presented here will likely prove no exception. Yet they also serve as ideal introductions to the composer's vision, methods and language. Typically evocative (and provocative) titles combine with a diverse set of musical references, from Bach to jazz, Irish republican song to Webern. Though it is Beethoven that looms most large..."

Reviews

12th June 2016

Both have titles provoking awareness that there’s more to music than crochets and quavers...First Political Agenda is a quasi-sonata whose first movement, “Wrong place. Wrong time”, is an explosion of modernismus almost parodic in its black disjunctiveness.

9th June 2016

It’s music that can be overwhelmingly complex and forbidding, tenderly sentimental, or frankly autobiographical. And it is strewn with allusions and references to a range of other periods and styles. Those characteristics and qualities are on display in the two large-scale works on Philip Thomas’s thoughtful and superbly played disc.

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