Anders Hillborg: Violin Concerto No.2

[DracoM]

Terrific performance of genuinely innovative music, and so in keeping with Sibelius.
Real find.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03q8r97

[arthroceph]

One of his songs featured on the In Tune Mixtape recently.

I suppose I find the musi appealing, at least on first listens.

He answered a few questions from Martin Handley there ... in a somewhat devil-may-care manner though ... don't know if that came across to others?

[arthroceph]

One of his songs was on the In Tune Mixtape recently.

I suppose I find his music appealing, at least on first listens.

He answered a few questions from Martin Handley this evening .... in a slightly devil-may-care manner though... anybody else get that vibe?

[bluestateprommer]

He answered a few questions from Martin Handley there ... in a somewhat devil-may-care manner though ... don't know if that came across to others?

Yes, AH's manner did come across that way in response to MH, sort of in a similar manner to how Harrison Birtwistle plays with Tom Service's brain in comparable chats. I suppose that one could see this as AH's way of saying that "my music speaks for itself and doesn't need words to 'explain' it". However, MH seemed to figure out pretty quickly that he was being played, so he subtly shifted the tone of the questions, which seemed to relax AH a bit, where AH said nice things about Lisa Batiashvili and such.

Regarding the concerto itself, which seemed more like a fantasia rather than anything near a "standard" concerto (for those who missed it, it's in a single continuous movement), I wonder if the tone of the pre-music banter by AH subconsciously biased me about the music, because I found AH's work to be rather self-consciously hipster, if that makes sense. It certainly engages the attention, and I wasn't bored (thus observing Billy Wilder's first 9 commandments of film-making, as applied to music). But I thought as I heard it that AH might have been thinking: "ooh, listen to my concerto; am I cool or what?". Maybe if it ever gets another airing on the radio somewhere else, I can give it another try.

It was its own reward to hear Sibelius 6 and 4 in this concert as well. I wouldn't claim that Oramo's performances with the BBC SO have been the be-all and end-all of Sibelius symphony interpretations for me, at least, as I found various slower moments a bit slack in pulse. But I love the Sibelius symphonies, so I can't complain about the opportunity to hear them via iPlayer (even if I foolishly missed Sibelius 3 some weeks back).