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Ivan Hewett presents an 80th birthday tribute to one of today's leading composers, Bernard Rands. Once described as, 'a composer with a poet's sensibility and a painterly love of colour and line', Rands has for many years been resident in the USA. However, he was born in the UK in Sheffield so it is especially appropriate that tonight's recordings were made at the Royal Northern College of Music's celebration of his music held in June.
Rands has held teaching positions at many leading universities and music schools across the US and is himself a onetime pupil of Dallapiccola, Berio and Boulez. His brand of post-Impressionist elegance combined with rhythmic vigour has resulted in residencies with many of the United States' top orchestras. Rands says that he writes his music 'to be as honest and as deeply personal as I can', and this is evident in his 'Chains like the sea'. The work is inspired by a poem by Dylan Thomas, as Rands uses the sounds of bells to map out life, from birth to death.
And in Composers' Rooms, Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the urban workspace which the composer Emily Hall shares with a community of other musicians and visual artists.

Bernard Rands: Danza petrificada
Â鶹Éç Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor)

Bernard Rands: Cello Concerto
Johannes Moser (cello)
Â鶹Éç Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor)

Composers' Rooms: Emily Hall and her urban workspace

Hans Werne Henze: Heliogabalus Imperator
Â鶹Éç Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen (conductor)

Bernard Rands: Chains like the sea
Â鶹Éç Philharmonic, Clark Rundell (conductor).