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March 07
Margaret Davies, Musical Opinion
“The other outstanding young artist heard was the pianist Daniel Browell,
who gave the first performance of Philip Venables' intriguingly titled
The Boy with the Moon in his Eyes, a set of four studies inspired by
Debussy's Études; far more than technical exercises, they gave rise to
contrasting stylistic impressions created with delicacy and sensitivity
by the pianist.”
11/01/07
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
“Daniel Browell [is] a pianist of considerable intelligence and grace.
He made much of Philip Venables' elegant The Boy With the Moon in His Eyes.”
8/12/06
Conrad Wilson, The Herald
“Philip Venables's String Quartet went no further than placing the viola player
where the first violin should sit, but it was a work filled with strong ideas,
some of them Bartokian, justifying the re-positioning of the instruments by the
eloquence of its viola part.”
5/12/06
Geoff Brown, The Times
“The versatile Duke Quartet had their own banquet with the world premiere
of Philip Venables’s String Quartet - 15 minutes of contrasting gestures,
driven through three compact movements by a powerful sense of drama and structure.”
18/06/04
Kenneth Carter, www.classicalsource.com
“Posthumously, Sylvia Plath inspired Venables to turn his seven-instrument
original [I fed my wardrobe to the night wind] into an eleven-instrument
piece, including a concertante alto flute. A sentence from The Bell Jar 'mirrored
the path' of his composition: “Piece by piece, I fed my wardrobe
to the night wind, and flutteringly, like a loved one’s ashes, the grey scraps
were carried off, to settle here, there, exactly where I would never know, in
the dark heart of New York.”
“Venables’ writing has tonal variety and colour. The alto flute
tellingly invoked this “melancholy, dark, still evening” – a
mood of nocturnal unease quivering amidst starlit calm." […]
“[Venables, conducting,] vindicated his claim for Stravinsky’s genius,
by subtly and unobtrusively pinpointing the musical variety in these accompaniments
and the fine, precise ear that heard such differences while engaging in their
composition. The prototype as regards performance was Pastorale – hackneyed
and chocolate-box, usually. Venables just gently nudged me to hear the contrapuntal
backing and marvel at its gentle diversity and musical acuity."
July 2004
Catherine Nelson, The Strad
“another world premiere – Philip Venables’ String Quartet,
in which the viola played a starring role. Delicately spun melodies dissolved into
bursts of aggression, with Benjamin Roskam's gritty, soulful viola playing given fine
support by the other members of the Artea Quartet.”
23/10/03
Kenneth Carter, www.classicalsource.com
“Essentially, Berio’s “points on a curve to find…”
is serial music with a playful, discursive piano continuum. Twelve pitches arranged
in a fixed order are re-stated ten times – starting at a different place
in the sequence each time and emphasizing different notes. Also, subsets of
the original sequence appear, modified. Orchestral instruments detail the emphases
and variations. SEQUENZA played all this intricacy superbly. […] Rightly,
Philip Venables chose a moderate speed. The music had space to breathe. As a
result, individual instrumentalists had time to place their sparing individual
contributions – often a single note – accurately and tellingly. Nor
did the piano’s flurrying susurrations ever hurry. This was music-making
of great accuracy and precision.
“Philip Venables’ own Broken, black ran the Berio a close second.
[…] Dark bass-clarinets opened the piece. Later the tuba paired off with
the contrabassoon. A trio of flutes was lighter and gentler. Venables offered
us selected, pinpointed instrumental blocks and arresting, varying overall sonorities.
[…]
“SEQUENZA is a virtuoso ensemble to watch out for. It has enthusiasm, professionalism
and already produces an arresting sound.”
18/11/00
Richard Wigmore, Cambridge Alumni Magazine
“Most dramatic was Panic, by Philip Venables. […] Very exciting,
terse, with not a note too many.”
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