Gerald Barry Piano Concerto

[LMcD]

Mow-mentarily or throughout? A cutting remark either way, one might say...

I must try to resist these horticultural jests in fuchsia.

[Richard Barrett]

‘Fanfare like brassy stuff’ -

I fancy there’s too much of this in contemporary orchestral music.

I think you're right.

[ahinton]

I think you're right.

Really? I'm sure that there must be some, but...

Which composers did you have in mind?

[jayne lee wilson]

‘Fanfare like brassy stuff’ -

I fancy there’s too much of this in contemporary orchestral music.

Hey, some of us like the brassy stuff! (in new music or especially in chamber-orchestral Schumann)....

The more I read of the brickbats and bored responses to this Barry piece, the more I'm intrigued to listen to it... (in amongst the Schumann and Holmboe - oh, the latter really loves the brassy stuff! No wonder I can't stop listening to it)...

[Richard Barrett]

Hey, some of us like the brassy stuff! (in new music or especially in chamber-orchestral Schumann)

I wasn't intending to say anything bad about "brassy stuff" per se, and certainly not in pre-twentieth-century music, just thinking that I find it a bit tiresome how many composers are still using instruments for the same kind of functions as they had in musics of quite different styles - not having the brass do typically brassy things is one of the most radical aspects of Debussy's orchestration for example (I was at a performance of La mer yesterday evening and it's still metaphorically ringing in my ears). I'm generally allergic to anything that sounds in the slightest bit "military", apart from the way that sort of trope is used by Mahler or Berg or Shostakovich. Of course there's something ironic about GB's music too, but I find it a bit hectoring.

[jayne lee wilson]

Haydn's very clever in the Military, isn't he? Couldn't be more militaristic, but wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, like a parody, a send-up of soldierly pomposity. (And a long time before Mahler or Shostakovich...)

[Richard Barrett]

Haydn's very clever in the Military, isn't he?

Haydn can do no wrong in my opinion!

[Beef Oven!]

Haydn can do no wrong in my opinion!

but he tests us in the stations of the cross

[LMcD]

but he tests us in the stations of the cross

Are you sure he wasn't just having a Joke (or a Lark)?

[ahinton]

Are you sure he wasn't just having a Joke (or a Lark)?

I will Hunt for the answer to that.

[richardfinegold]

Haydn can do no wrong in my opinion!

[LMcD]

I will Hunt for the answer to that.

Congratulations on your Razor-sharp wit!

[silvestrione]

As a tailpiece to this thread, I'll just say that eventually I got round to listening to the other works in the programme, Beethoven 4 and 5, and how rewarding they were too! The Britten Sinfonia worked their socks off for Ades (in the Barry as well of course, and Hodges appeared to be magnificent).

But, how curious that he did NOT do the first movement repeats, and missed one or two other repeats as well. I was REALLY looking forward to hearing that bassoon in the 1st M. expostion of the 4th a second time, and was denied!

[ahinton]

Haydn can do no wrong in my opinion!

Nor in mine (a handful of perhaps comparatively dull early "piano" trios notwithstanding)...