Philip Grange’s earliest published compositions date from the late 1970s, and include Cimmerian Nocturne, written for Peter Maxwell Davies’ Fires of London – and inspired by Grange’s studies with Max. His compositions have been performed around the world to great acclaim and many have been recorded. There is a certain preoccupation with shadowy textures and sombre, puzzling subject matter, and this is matched in music of great subtlety and sometimes ambiguity, ominously ebbing and flowing in layers and levels of sound and meaning that slip away as fast as one tries to grasp them. Sombre and disturbing in the sense of thought-provoking, these haunting works will repay amply the attention they demand of the listener. Prior to arriving at Manchester, Prof Grange held the posts of Professor of Compositionc at Exeter University (1989-2000), Fellow in the Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge (1985-87) and Northern Arts Composer Fellow at Durham University (1988-89). His principal composition teachers were Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (with whom he studied both privately and at the Dartington Summer School between 1975 and 1981) and Professor David Blake (with whom he studied at York University between 1976 and 1983). Philip Grange is an academic as well as a composer. This should not be met with disapprobation. There is nothing pedantic or arcane about any of these pieces. He is currently Professor of Composition at Manchester University, a position he has held since 2001. He has also held posts at Durham University, Trinity College, Cambridge and Exeter University. Grange studied with Peter Maxwell Davies between 1985 and 1981, as well as David Blake at York University between 1976 and 1981.

He was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge (1985–7), and Northern Arts Fellow in Composition at Durham University (1988–9) before joining the music department at Exeter University as lecturer (1989), reader (1995) and professor (1999) in composition. [2] In 2000 he moved to the University of Manchester, where he is Professor of Music. [3] Works [ edit ] Contemporary music with real character in performances that rise to the challenges of an economical yet potent language. sometimes less so. This is a piece that responds to repeated listening. It is a tribute to Goss’s skill and theThe Piano Trio (1995) is subtitled Homage to Chagall. The third movement, Quasi recit., is the only one to refer to specific pictures and these can be reached online. It’s not easy to identify aural connections with the painter but Grange talks of his analogy to Chagall’s ‘use of a large, but nonetheless limited number of images, one of which might provide the focus of a particular painting, while appearing peripheral in another. for string quartet and clarinet takes Italo Calvino’s beguiling Invisible Cities as its starting point, capturing the

mad, the wedding feast still on thenuptial table but in ever more alarming states of putrefaction…Davies’s

Fiercely difficult to play though the music is – and it is meant to be unconducted, like true chamber music – it United Kingdom I am over sixty years old: the end of the run of baby boomers! I was born in Glasgow, moving south to York in the late ‘seventies. My main interest is British Music from the nineteenth century onwards. I love the ‘arch-typical’ English countryside – and have always wanted to ‘Go West, Boy’. A. E. Housman and the ‘Georgian’ poets are a huge influence on my aesthetic. I have spent much of my life looking for the ‘Land of Lost Content’ and only occasionally glimpsed it…somewhere in…??? increasingly threadbare wedding dress, later terrorized byyoung men in the neighbourhood, ageing, going We would be delighted if you could join us for an event celebrating the Manchester activities of the AHRC funded Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community Project, a multi-partner consortium which is part of the OWRI (Open World Research Initiative).

Over the past 15 years Grange has also completed Eclipsing (2004), a large-scale orchestral piece. Commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Philharmonic and premiered by them under Vassily Sinaisky; the work was also performed by the orchestra under Andris Nelsons in a BBC concert celebrating the composer’s fiftieth birthday. Also dating from this period are three string quartets; the first two were completed in 2003 for the Kreutzer and Lindsay Quartets while the third, Ghosts of Great Violence (2011/13), was written for the Quatuor Danel. More recently he has composed the large-scale chamber work Shifting Thresholds (2016) for the ensemble Gemini, Carved Forms (2017) for flute and accordion and a Violin Concerto (2019). The latter was commissioned by the BBC for Carolin Widmann and the BBC Philharmonic who premiered the work under Ben Gernon at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in November 2019. As if the quality of the music and the performances weren’t enough, the listener is also provided with aT his is important music by two master composers beautifully performed by their frequent collaborators. Recorded live at Orkney's St Magnus Festival, Wells' account proves this 1974 theatre piece still has the crystalline,transparent music is a marvel: lucidly conceived, its textures brilliantly coloured, thework is in a This is music whose creative instincts are undeniably personal. Finely prepared performances, heard in a commendably natural ambience and with Grange contributing the informative booklet note. seriousness and fun. Quotes, references and ciphers litter the score, sometimes these are obvious and

Following the success and critical acclaim of recent recordings, the British chamber ensemble Gemini is busy finalising a new collection of chamber works by Philip Grange which will be released by Métier in the summer.

of two films, in which scenes from a live performance are intercut with film images of the story transposed to a Nicola LeFanu/David Lumsdaine: Mandala 3 Metier/Divine Art msv28565 ʽʽIt is powerful music, an intense and absorbing work which receives virtuosic performances from pianist I have not heard North Country composer John Casken’s (b. 1949) Piano Quartet. Philip Grange explains that he garnered material for his Tiers of Time (2007) from the that work’s final bars. The stimulation of Grange’s ‘landscape inspired’ piano quartet was found in ‘the desolate, gloomy moorlands and the breath-taking vistas often illuminated by powerful sunlight’ prevalent in the English Peak District. The title itself is derived from geological strata apparent in those hills. This work is not a ‘cow and gate’ depiction of the countryside: it is hard-edged, more mill-stone grit that anything else. It is not a difficult musical language, but one that is not immediately approachable. I had to listen to it twice before the gentler, more lyrical passages revealed themselves, especially in the deeply moving conclusion. It is an impressive piece of writing for the ensemble. Whilst still in the North Country, I would love to hear Grange’s Lowry Dreamscape for brass band! Grange knows exactly how Gemini ‘sound’ and they are completely on top of the music. They play these challenging works with confidence, with belief in the music and, under the composer’s supervision, authority. One is immediately plunged into an enigmatic world but one so clearly realized and in which every detail is heard. Metier is doing a terrific job… and here delivery a nicely balanced recording. This is sometimes tough music but the disc comes with a highly recommended stamp from me. This is a thoroughly enjoyable programme. The musical language is not easy but is totally rewarding and ultimately satisfying. All the pieces are written in a modernist style that is always approachable, interesting and satisfying. All these works are written with skill, strong formal principles, sharp dissonance balancing lyricism, and a rigorous intellectual underpinning. Gemini’s playing of these four remarkable works is first-class. I think that special honours ought to go to Sophie Harris for her extraordinary performance of the Elegy for solo cello.