Lawrence Dunn

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Lawrence Dunn

How exactly do composers show up in their own works? It’s windy and brightly overcast in Manchester and I’m sat in a chair opposite Thomas Adès in his dressing room before he’s due to rehearse with the Hallé. The metal venetian blind on the open window behind noisily rustles and fidgets. It can be hard to hear him over the noise. Backlit like this it’s even hard to see him. “It’s always an aspect of any artist, that they reveal themselves. Even if they set out not to. It works the other way.

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Lawrence Dunn

The sheer mass of the Royal Norwegian Naval Forces Band at times threatens to overwhelm. Instruments polished, their uniforms clearly exquisitely laundered and pressed. Their presence felt uncanny, yet no one seemed to bat an eye. At the conclusion of Jason Yarde’s new piece for the group, clarinets and cornets are pointed skyward, to wail joyfully into the ceiling of Bergen Cathedral.

2 months ago | bachtrack.com | Lawrence Dunn

“I was born with one hand: I feel as normal as you feel, for me there’s no difference.” I’m talking to pianist Nicholas McCarthy about Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and the way in which it came into the world. “I often say just how thankful I am for Paul Wittgenstein – and Otakar Hollmann too.

Dec 5, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Lawrence Dunn

Barbara Hannigan is sat in her garden warming her hands with a cup of tea, in between practice sessions. We’re reminiscing about her work with Pierre Boulez, ahead of centenary celebrations next year. In 2011, Hannigan and Boulez toured Pli selon pli, his seminal cycle of voice-and-orchestra settings of Mallarmé – it would be the last major orchestral tour of Boulez’s life. “I remember the problems Boulez had with his eyes, he couldn’t see very well,” Hannigan tells me.

Sep 19, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Lawrence Dunn

This autumn’s season of contemporary music festivals hit the ground running this past weekend with the opening of Ultima Oslo, which this year boasted a fascinating and varied lineup of artists from around the world, across a broad range of musical and sonic disciplines.