Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Recordings

  • Naomo Pinnetuo released by Royal Academy of Music

    Naomo Pinnetuo released by Royal Academy of Music

    In celebration of their 200th Anniversary, the Royal Academy of Music asked 200 composers for birthday-gift compositions for solo instruments. To celebrate our friendship, which began at the Academy in 2002, Naomi Pinnock and I both chose to write for solo violin, taking snippets of musical material from each other’s student works for strings. This resulted in my piece, Noamo Pinnetuo, performed by Academy student Ezo Sarici, and Naomi’s piece, The Shadow of the Thing, performed by Academy student Daniel Stroud.

    Today the Academy has recorded and released all 200 recordings on a special website. The recordings are available for streaming here:

    Venables — Naomo Pinnetuo, performed Ezo Sarici

    Pinnock — The Shadow of the Thing, performed by Daniel Stroud.

    Photo of Ezo Sarici © Will Thomas

  • A Photograph released on Hermes Experiment Album

    A Photograph released on Hermes Experiment Album

    A Photograph — a little piece I wrote last year for the Hermes Experiment with playwright Cordelia Lynn — will be appear on the group’s forthcoming album, SONG. The album is on Delphian Records, and will be released on 22nd October. It is available to pre-order here.

    A Photograph was commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival for their 2020 Festival, specifically for The Hermes Experiment. It was my first collaboration with playwright Cordelia Lynn, and was based on a photograph that was found in my parents’ attic while our old family home was being cleared out — a photo of my mum in her early 20s with two friends, on holiday. Cordelia (who didn’t know of what or whom the photo was) wrote a text based on her invented back-story of the photo.

  • 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.

  • Dutch Courage released on NMC

    Dutch Courage released on NMC

    Coma_cover_lightweightDutch Courage, my piece for amateur ensemble, has just been released by NMC.  The new disc is called Open Score and it is a collaboration with Contemporary Music for Amateurs (CoMA), for whom I wrote Dutch Courage when I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in 2004.  The title of the disc refers to the fact that all the pieces are written in ‘open score’, for a flexible group of players of any type and number.

    This recording is actually by the London Sinfonietta, rather than an amateur group, but I’m very happy to say that Dutch Courage has been a bit of a hit with all sorts of amateur groups since I wrote it, and has had dozens of performances over the years.   I’m also very happy that my very good friend Naomi Pinnock is also featured on this disc, along with my former teacher, Philip Cashian.  Great company!

    The disc is also available for download, here.  The score is going to be re-published soon in a new volume to accompany the disc.