Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Metamorphoses after Britten

  • Below the Belt one of BBC Music Magazine’s ’30 must-have albums’

    Below the Belt one of BBC Music Magazine’s ’30 must-have albums’

    BBC Music Magazine is celebrating its 30th Birthday this year, and as part of the celebrations they have chosen Below The Belt as one of their 30 “Must-Have Albums of our Lifetime”.

    In the week when the UK’s financial and political stability is balancing on a knife-edge, Steph Power’s writing is incredibly prescient:

    “Over the past 30 years, the UK has experienced seismic cultural and socio-political shifts. In his superb 2018 debut recording Below the Belt, composer Phillip Venables speaks to the resulting – and ongoing — turmoil with a lacerating eloquence that addresses social fallout and the awakening of new generations to matters of individual freedom and identity. Visceral yet tender and forensically clear, the six vocal and instrumental works encompass fractured states, super-real abstraction and graphic, ferociously satirical directness, brilliantly performed by an array of soloists and ensembles including performance artist David Hoyle and the London Sinfonietta under conductor Richard Baker. “

  • Below The Belt

    Below The Belt

    My debut album, Below the Belt, is now available for pre-ordering via NMC here. The disc will be launched on 16th March 2018.  The works on the disc are:

    The Revenge of Miguel Cotto,
    Klaviertrio im Geiste,
    Numbers 76–80,
    Numbers 91-95,
    Metamorphoses after Britten,
    Illusions.

    The disc features David Hoyle, the London Sinfonietta, Phoenix Piano Trio, Ligeti Quartet, Leigh Melrose, Dario Dugandzic, Nick Blackburn, Melinda Maxwell, Natalie Raybould, Lewis Bretherton, George Chambers and Ashley Mercer, conducted by Richard Baker.

  • ‘Signals’ featuring the Metamorphoses after Britten

    ‘Signals’ featuring the Metamorphoses after Britten

    I just received a copy of the Signals volume of new music for oboe. It features my Metamorphoses after Britten in it, and I also designed the front cover.

    The volume was edited by the amazing Melinda Maxwell, for whom I wrote my Metamorphoses, and John Stringer an oboist-composer.  It’s now available on musicroom.com.

    If you play the oboe, go out and buy it now — it’s got a great selection of stuff in it.  And not all of it that difficult either.  Very suitable for Grade 7-8 upwards to university/conservatoire/professional, I think.

  • ‘FLIPP’ premiere. Unerhörte Musik, Berlin.

    ‘FLIPP’ premiere. Unerhörte Musik, Berlin.

    Well – a few weeks ago I went along to the premiere at Unerhörte Musik in Berlin, of my new short saxophone duo, Flipp, which I wrote for Christoph Enzel and Adrian Tully.  I have to say that the piece was written very quickly, after coming back from a slew of concerts in London just the week before the concert. It pretty much only uses two notes for most of the piece.  They played it BRILLIANTLY – and i was pretty happy with the piece.  I haven’t put up the info page here for it yet, but there is a recording of this piece here.  It works really good with headphones, to get the stereo effects between the two players. (In live performance they stand at opposite sides of the stage.) Check it out.

    Flipp, for two saxophones (2011) by philipvenables

    Christoph also played my Metamorphoses after Britten on soprano sax – rather wonderfully too.  The acoustic in the BKA Theater in Berlin is as dry as a bone, which affects how resonant and harmonic the slow movements sound, but the fast movements in there sounded punchy and clear and really energetic.  I really hope Christoph and i can record them properly sometime, to go alongside the wonderful recording of Melinda Maxwell playing the oboe version of the pieces.

    Anyway – I look forward to working with these two amazing players again soon!

  • Metamorphoses after Britten

    Programme Note

    I – A mountain
    II – Fixation
    III – Flowers
    IV – Fountains

    Metamorphoses after Britten are just that: four miniatures, each inspired by one of Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe. Each movement, over its short course, transforms gradually from one thing to another, ending, with the exception of Fountains, in a short, cathartic coda. Some of the movements also take specific musical elements from Britten’s pieces.  I very much viewed these pieces as musical Haiku, and in that sense I hope they embody a sense of peace, brevity and simplicity.

    Details

    The oboe version of Metamorphoses after Britten is dedicated to Melinda Maxwell.

    Metamorphoses after Britten was written for Melinda Maxwell for UYMP’s Signals volume of new music for oboe. It was first performed by Melinda at York University on 24th November 2010.

    Versions are available for clarinet, saxophone and bassoon.

    Duration: 8 minutes

    Published by Opera Edition Ltd.

    Buy score

    News about Metamorphoses after Britten