Sibelius, Turnage and Beethoven

[Nick Armstrong]

it completely revised my previous opinion of Daniel Harding

Agreed!

[Quarky]

I see Hilary Finch gave it 4 stars in the Times, but unfortunately one has to login to the Times Website to see the review.
.

Turnage seems to have had a good week. Firstly "From the Wreckage", which received good reviews, and secondly the concert Thursday night "Speranza", which strangely did not qualify for a new thread on this board, but which got even better reviews - Guardian:

This has been an important week for the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage. Two nights ago, his 2005 trumpet concerto From the Wreckage commanded the stage at the Barbican Hall, London. Now it was the turn of Speranza, a five-movement orchestral work commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, receiving its world premiere under the impressively assured baton of Daniel Harding.

Turnage's piece is substantial in every way. It is written for a very large orchestra, lasts 45 minutes and is imaginatively and even profligately coloured, with prominent roles for the exotically reedy Armenian duduk (a relative of the oboe) and for the brittle sound of the cimbalom. It is a linear, at times almost traditionally symphonic work, with motifs and episodes exchanged and even occasionally developed in writing of considerable discipline. The concept of hope is explicitly woven into the score by the composer. Each movement – and the whole – is identified by the single word "hope" in one of six different languages. Yet, although it starts amid great urgency and ends quietly, there is little sense of a journey from darkness to light: the five movements are by turns agitated, threatening, swaggering, bleak and solemn.

All this adds up to a challenge to the listener to engage with what Turnage means by hope. There is nothing easy about the idea as it is conveyed here. Turnage's musical ideas survive, rather than resolve. Hollow optimism in the Shostakovich manner is in short supply, as is Beethovenian celebration. Increasingly, it seemed Turnage's idea of hope is embodied in the writing and performing of music, rather than in any external programme or narrative imposed upon it.

The Turnage inevitably dominated the evening. But Harding began with a sinuous performance of Sibelius's Oceanides tone poem, another big orchestral piece with clear textures, and Lars Vogt gave an outstandingly rich account of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, marred only by a mobile phone ringing during the soloist's beautifully weighted playing of the magical opening chords of the slow movement.

[Hornspieler]

Turnage seems to have had a good week. Firstly "From the Wreckage", which received good reviews, and secondly the concert Thursday night "Speranza", which strangely did not qualify for a new thread on this board, but which got even better reviews - Guardian:

So you didn't look at the title of this thread before you posted your message on it?

Sometimes, I wonder why I bother.

HS

[teamsaint]

Thanks for your contribution, Oddball, which seems to be discussing Turnage, as per the thread title.

[Quarky]

So you didn't look at the title of this thread before you posted your message on it?

Sometimes, I wonder why I bother.

HS

Apologies HS. I should have read the title of the thread!.

[Nick Armstrong]

Apologies HS. I should have read the title of the thread!.

I didn't read your post as inconsistent, though, and didn't quite understand why HS got aereated...

[Hornspieler]

I didn't read your post as inconsistent, though, and didn't quite understand why HS got aereated...

I was referring to part of Oddball's post (message No 17) in which he said:

Turnage seems to have had a good week. Firstly "From the Wreckage", which received good reviews, and secondly the concert Thursday night "Speranza", which strangely did not qualify for a new thread on this board, but which got even better reviews - Guardian:

He was posting on the thread which I started - Sibelius, Turnage and Beethoven.

Maybe I should just have said "GORDON BENNET!(see top of page one). and left it at that.

HS

[Alison]

I can see both sides of the coin

[Nick Armstrong]

I was referring to part of Oddball's post (message No 17) in which he said:



He was posting on the thread which I started - Sibelius, Turnage and Beethoven.

Maybe I should just have said "GORDON BENNET!(see top of page one). and left it at that.

HS

Ah, I see

Thanks HS!

[Quarky]

Re: Turnage. A very short piece, I hope the concert goers thought they got their money's worth.

I always feel with Turnage there is a strong Jazz influence there, which offers an easy way into the music. An interesting piece, but not enough of it!

On listening to this piece several times, it is I feel an excellent piece. Excellent trumpet playing. But despite MAT's protestations, it is strongly reminiscent at times of Gil Evans/ Miles Davis, and might not go amiss on Jazz on Three!