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1 CD
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€ 19.95
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| Label Challenge Classics |
UPC 0608917200119 |
Catalogue number CC 720011 |
Release date 31 January 2025 |
"4*** star review in The Guardian: "Francisco Coll: A Portrait album review – assured collection charts the rise of a compelling voice" [...] ".... in these five instrumental and ensemble works, all played with great virtuosity by members of The Hague-based New European Ensemble. It’s a remarkably assured collection; even the earliest work here, the ensemble piece Piedras, with its parade of brilliantly coloured musical images which are managed so confidently, shows the startling fertility of the Valencia-born composer’s aural imagination, and the same ability to conjure up ideas with an utterly distinctive rhythmic and melodic profile is displayed on a smaller scale in the four movements for flute, viola and guitar of ... De voz aceitunada, which was written in 2010 and then revised in 2023.""
The Guardian, 21-2-2025The New European Ensemble (NEuE) tells stories, through the communicative power of new music. Stories that aim to reflect, challenge, inspire and deepen our understanding of human experience and our environment.
The group often combines music with film, literature, theatre, dance and visual art. The ensemble has collaborated with Edward Snowden, Boris van der Ham, Nick Verstand, DeFrame, Opera2Day, Het Nationale Theater (Netherlands National Theatre), Amnesty International, The International Criminal Court and War Child.
NEuE was founded in 2009 in the Netherlands by dedicated and passionate musicians from across Europe. The ensemble has built a reputation for imaginative programming as well as ‘fantastic’ (NRC) and ‘excellent performances’ (de Volkskrant) and has been called one of the ‘Netherland’s leading ensembles’ (Nieuwe Noten). In 2019, the NEuE was awarded the prestigious Kersjesprijs recognising ‘10 years of achievement at the highest level presenting contemporary music to a wide audience in a gripping and accessible way.’
Composers including Mark Anthony Turnage, José María Sánchez-Verdú, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Guo Wenjing, Carlo Boccadoro, Martijn Padding and Klas Torstensson have written works for the ensemble.
The group has performed in nearly all of The Netherlands’ major concert halls and theatres among them the Concertgebouw, Carré Theater and Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam, Tivoli Vredenburg and The Royal Theatre in The Hague. The ensemble performs regularly at festivals such as Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Festival Vlaanderen, November Music, Shanghai New Music Week, Beijing Contemporary Music Festival and Svensk Musikvår. International tours bring the group to the UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Lebanon, China and Hong Kong.
The ensemble’s musicians regularly work with young composers and performers at the Hague’s Royal Conservatoire and at music schools worldwide.
Composer-conductor Francisco Coll has found advocates in the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, LA Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble Modern. His music has been heard at festivals from Aldeburgh, Aix and Aspen to the BBC Proms, Verbier and Tanglewood; his work is performed by leading instrumentalists, including Kirill Gerstein, Javier Perianes, Pekka Kuusisto, Sol Gabetta, Augustin Hadelich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sean Shibe, and Cuarteto Casals.
Born in Valencia in 1985, Coll studied at the Valencia and Madrid Conservatoires before moving to London to work privately with Thomas Adès (as his only pupil to-date) and with Richard Baker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Coll’s concert opener Hidd’n Blue was premiered in 2012 by the London Symphony Orchestra and has since been taken up by the SWR Sinfonieorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker, and the Cincinnati Symphony. His 2014 chamber opera Café Kafka, to a text by Meredith Oakes, was premiered to great acclaim by Aldeburgh Music, Opera North and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and has since been produced at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts; it receives its Czech premiere in a concert staging from NeoKlasik Orchestra in September 2024 at Prague's Café Louvre.
In 2016 Coll made his BBC Proms debut with the Four Iberian Miniatures for violin and chamber orchestra, conducted by Thomas Adès. The same year Mural was premiered by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, who has become one of Coll’s strongest supporters. Turia, a concerto for guitar and seven players was premiered in 2017 by Jacob Kellerman and Norrbotten NEO conducted by Christian Karlsen; a version for guitar and chamber orchestra received its first performance in 2021 at the Uppsala International Guitar Festival.
In 2018-19 Coll was Composer-in-Residence with Camerata Bern, a position that culminated in the premiere of the Double Concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta as soloists and the composer himself conducting. A Violin Concerto for Kopatchinskaja, commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, London Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the NTR ZaterdagMatinee and Bamberger Symphoniker, was premiered in February 2020. His Cello Concerto premiered with Sol Gabetta in 2022 with the Philharmonie de Paris, conducted by the composer, and recieved its UK premiere at the 2024 BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tianyi Lu.
Plaisirs Illuminés, released on Alpha in 2021, features his double concerto for Kopatchinskaja and Gabetta, with Coll conducting Camerata Bern – in 2022 it won the BBC Music Magazine concerto prize. A portrait disc of his orchestral works, with Gustavo Gimeno conducting, was released on Pentatone in 2021.
In 2019 he became the first composer to receive an International Classical Music Award (ICMA). In 2022 he was awarded two more: the Orchestra award and the Contemporary Music prize for the orchestral portrait disc. Coll conducted his own music at the ICMA awards ceremony that year.
From 2018-2020 Coll was Composer-in-Residence with the Orquesta de València. In 2022 he conducted them in his new 11-minute orchestral work Lilith; 2022 also saw the Toronto Symphony Orchestra give the premiere of his latest orchestral work Elysian, and the premiere of Coll’s Piano Trio for Trio Isimsiz. Coll’s Cello Concerto for Sol Gabetta premiered with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in November 2022, conducted by the composer. In 2024 the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno premiered Ciudad sin sueño¸ a new work for piano and orchestra for Javier Perianes, which made its North American debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
2024 sees Coll continue his multi-season role as Artistic Partner to the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, as both composer and conductor, which began in autumn 2022. The 24/25 season also sees Kirill Gerstein premiere and tour Coll's Two Waltzes Towards Civilization, as well as the Spanish premiere of Ciudad sin sueño. Coll's next stage work is based on Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.
Francisco Coll is represented worldwide as a conductor by Askonas Holt.
4*** star review in The Guardian:
"Francisco Coll: A Portrait album review – assured collection charts the rise of a compelling voice"
[...]
".... in these five instrumental and ensemble works, all played with great virtuosity by members of The Hague-based New European Ensemble. It’s a remarkably assured collection; even the earliest work here, the ensemble piece Piedras, with its parade of brilliantly coloured musical images which are managed so confidently, shows the startling fertility of the Valencia-born composer’s aural imagination, and the same ability to conjure up ideas with an utterly distinctive rhythmic and melodic profile is displayed on a smaller scale in the four movements for flute, viola and guitar of ... De voz aceitunada, which was written in 2010 and then revised in 2023."
The Guardian, 21-2-2025
It is the sharpness of the timbres and the rhythmic vigor, coupled with strong metric variability, that first stand out in Piedras (2010).
4 stars
Diapason, 28-4-2025
Mysterious silent moments make way for nervous passages full of Flatterzunge and trills from the strings, interrupted by sudden percussion strikes. A captivating musical narrative, vividly shaped by the New European Ensemble, which also commissioned the piece.
Luister, 14-3-2025
This excellent portrait of Coll ranges from piano to music for small instrumental ensembles, and benefits from the interpretation of the host of virtuoso instrumentalists who make up the Dutch group New European Ensemble (NEuE).
Scherzo, 01-2-2025
A beautiful collection of modern and very imaginative works.
Music Emotion, 31-1-2025
For this recording, a high-caliber ensemble was assembled to perform Coll’s music at a high level and with great commitment. Above all, the inherent colors of the works shine through.
Pizzicato, 06-1-2025
All in all a wonderful CD, not least because of the contribution of the New European Ensemble and conductor Tito Munoz, who have clearly put their heart and soul into the interpretation of these demanding scores.
Opus Klassiek, 01-1-2025
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