An unreconstructed and unrepentant Modernist, Brian Ferneyhough has often been grouped with James Dillon,
Richard Bennett, and
Michael Finnissy as a practitioner of the so-called "New Complexity," a tag used, fairly or not, to distinguish them from the various post-Modernists, neo-Romantics, and minimalists who have dominated the field since the 1990s. Ferneyhough's hardcore avant-garde music is noted for its wild hyperactivity, textural density, frequent harshness, and extreme technical demands; and almost superhuman abilities are required of the musicians of
Ensemble Recherche on this disc from Stradivarius. A string trio's spare, exposed parts can be complicated enough to make it seem like a quintet, and a septet of mixed winds and strings can be made to sound almost orchestral. Elaborate, crisscrossing lines, scrambled phrases, pointillistic pitches, wide leaps, and rapid changes of attack and articulation make Ferneyhough's music daunting for the lay listener, and perhaps unpleasant as well, since there is almost no relief to be found except in the few silences he allows. The String Trio (1995) and Incipits (1997) require the greatest stamina, and listeners must brace themselves for a blizzard of fragmentary ideas and abrupt gestures; the much shorter In nomine a 3 (2001) and the tiny Streichtrio (1994) are the easiest pieces for newcomers to try.