Radio 3 in Concert Monday 18.03.24:
BENJAMIN ATTAHIR -Stabat Mater (1st. Performance) and R.Strauss
Benjamin is about 35 years old and he was born in Toulouse. Benjamin's main instrument is the violin and he has written a Concerto for Renaud Capuçon. Attahir's music is linear and based on counterpoint. He studied with Pierre Boulez and several other leading French musicians. He knows his trade and one can hear echoes of Olivier Messaien in an eclectic style that mates fugati to dodecacophony. I recalled Ben Britten's Cantata Academica.
The Stabat Mater was largely composed during winter two years ago. It is scored for a Youth choir of divisi sopranos and altos and full orchestra tricked out with alto flute, bass clarinet and the new percussion de rigueur with 21st. c. composers. The Youth Choir is treated with understanding, and the work uses sequential development and shows the comfort of 'coming together' in unison. Through four verses there is an admirable sense that the composer knows where he's going. Rhythmic patterns are strong and there is an admirable variety of well characterised tempi. The music is immediately engaging and it does not eschew tunes!
This first peformance sounded well rehearsed and secure. The Radio France Orchestra and the Girls' Choir of Radio France were under the relaxed direction of the excellent Finnish conductor, Mikko Franck.
It is available on YOUTUBE:
I stayed for some lovely gentle singing by the versatile Lithuanian soprano, Asmik Grigorian in a fine, if French inflected, interpretation of R.Strss's Four Last Songs. The violin solos depicting the relationship between the composer and his wife were genteel, almost virginal whereas I would have preferred lascivious sexuality
The horn sounded almost German when remembering Richard's hornspieler father, Franz.
BENJAMIN ATTAHIR -Stabat Mater (1st. Performance) and R.Strauss
Benjamin is about 35 years old and he was born in Toulouse. Benjamin's main instrument is the violin and he has written a Concerto for Renaud Capuçon. Attahir's music is linear and based on counterpoint. He studied with Pierre Boulez and several other leading French musicians. He knows his trade and one can hear echoes of Olivier Messaien in an eclectic style that mates fugati to dodecacophony. I recalled Ben Britten's Cantata Academica.
The Stabat Mater was largely composed during winter two years ago. It is scored for a Youth choir of divisi sopranos and altos and full orchestra tricked out with alto flute, bass clarinet and the new percussion de rigueur with 21st. c. composers. The Youth Choir is treated with understanding, and the work uses sequential development and shows the comfort of 'coming together' in unison. Through four verses there is an admirable sense that the composer knows where he's going. Rhythmic patterns are strong and there is an admirable variety of well characterised tempi. The music is immediately engaging and it does not eschew tunes!
This first peformance sounded well rehearsed and secure. The Radio France Orchestra and the Girls' Choir of Radio France were under the relaxed direction of the excellent Finnish conductor, Mikko Franck.
It is available on YOUTUBE:
I stayed for some lovely gentle singing by the versatile Lithuanian soprano, Asmik Grigorian in a fine, if French inflected, interpretation of R.Strss's Four Last Songs. The violin solos depicting the relationship between the composer and his wife were genteel, almost virginal whereas I would have preferred lascivious sexuality
The horn sounded almost German when remembering Richard's hornspieler father, Franz.