Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Metamorphoses after Britten

  • 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!