Ferneyhough's Plough

[Mahlerian]

As far as I know, this is the only commercial recording with Boulez conducting Ferneyhough's music:


Funerailles is given here in both "versions," so you can hear two takes on similar ideas in short succession. I'm no expert in Ferneyhough's music, but this piece seems far less densely packed than his usual. A lot of frenzied activity, for sure, but also lots of musical "space," and some fine writing for harp.

[Mandryka]

Long interview

https://www.youtube.com/v/kI7cpFEBwCE&t=97s&ab_channel=SamuelAndreyev

[Old San Antone]

Long interview

https://www.youtube.com/v/kI7cpFEBwCE&t=97s&ab_channel=SamuelAndreyev

I found that one a couple of weeks ago and listened to some of it.  Was the last syllable of his name is pronounced "hoe", and not "how"?

[Iota]

Was the last syllable of his name pronounced "hoe", and not "how"?

Yes. When I first came across Ferneyhough, I assumed Ferney-huff until somebody put me right.

[brewski]

To mark Ferneyhough's 80th birthday, Time and Motion Study II (1973-76) with cellist T.J. Borden, and electronics by James Bean and Paul Hembree, recorded at the University of California San Diego.

-Bruce

[CRCulver]

Are there any young string quartets and ensembles currently taking up Ferneyhough, being coached by the Ardittis etc.? I'm concerned that the existing performance tradition, all the work of "putting the grass in" (as Irvine Arditti put it) to make Ferneyhough's scores playable, could be lost if there isn't that deliberate handover from one generation to the next.

In fact, I've felt worried about Ferneyhough's legacy in general recently. He was such an academically minded composer, very linked to the culture of erudition at the time, but today's academia has very different priorities and values. The world seems to be moving past him and, though maybe I'm reading too much into the Samuel Andreyev interview, he knows it.

[Mandryka]

Are there any young string quartets and ensembles currently taking up Ferneyhough, being coached by the Ardittis etc.? I'm concerned that the existing performance tradition, all the work of "putting the grass in" (as Irvine Arditti put it) to make Ferneyhough's scores playable, could be lost if there isn't that deliberate handover from one generation to the next.

In fact, I've felt worried about Ferneyhough's legacy in general recently. He was such an academically minded composer, very linked to the culture of erudition at the time, but today's academia has very different priorities and values. The world seems to be moving past him and, though maybe I'm reading too much into the Samuel Andreyev interview, he knows it.

I get the feeling that guitarists and flautists play his music, I've not heard of a string quartet taking it on recently. 

[T. D.]

Here's a video of an April 2023 performance of La Chûte d'Icare by a NYC ensemble:

Facebook video

That's my favorite Ferneyhough piece, based on the 1989 Etcetera recording (incl. Arditti but not the quartet).

On an old precursor (?) of this board, clarinetist Carl Rosman was a Ferneyhough advocate iirc. He seems to currently be affiliated with musikFabrik, but I can't tell whether he's performed much of F's music lately.

Stephen Gosling (piano) used to play Lemma-Icon-Epigram fairly often in NYC (iirc I saw him c. 2000 at Juilliard), but I'm not sure how recently.