25 for 25: Sounds of the Century

[esmondo]

It's surely a good thing that R3 has commissioned 25 composers to write pieces, which are being broadcast once per week on Saturday Morning:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/radio-3-25-for-25-sounds-of-the-century

I happened to catch the second of these - a pleasant jazzy little piano piece by Stephen Hough - and I was just about interested enough to go and listen to the first on Sounds - Anna Clyne's "The Eye". A surprisingly trad bit of light music which would have made a good soundtrack to some 1960s TV documentary.

I shall not give up hope, and will check out the remaining 23 as they become available. Though I'm b******d if I'll sit through 3 hours of Tom Service to do it.

[mopsus]

You may not have to - Hough's was broadcast at about 8.35 this morning and probably will be again during this week!

[smittims]

Yes,the Stephen Hough (not 'jazzy' to my ears, though, rather a reflective piece in his style) was played on Sunday Morning at about 10 am,. I think.

As so often , I am torn between praise and complaint. Yes, it is 'surely' a good thing that the BBC is still commissioning pieces of , at least nominally, 'classical' music , but they are very short (to avoid taxing the attention span of Sam's 'new audience' , perhaps) and they have to fit a pre-set 'theme'. Couldn't someoene just write a piece of music?

I rememeber the days when the BBC commissioned full-length works from composers of the calibre of Hugh Wood, Arnold Cooke and Priaulx Rainier (all cello concertos, coincidentally!).

[Pulcinella]

You may not have to - Hough's was broadcast at about 8.35 this morning and probably will be again during this week!

So rather annoyingly like the Advent calendar, in Breakfast? How randomly, one wonders.
Presumably they're short pieces if they are to be slotted in then.
Silly question.

[willietell]

Though I'm b******d if I'll sit through 3 hours of Tom Service to do it.

Thank goodness Hannah French was sitting in for TS on yesterday's Sunday Morning. Which was the only reason I heard Stephen Hough's piece on its first outing (I always avoid blustering Tom). Petroc played it again this morning.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I was hoping some one else would start this topic as I didn’t want to appear negative . Have to say I find the two pieces so far pretty slight particularly the Anna Clyne Auld Land Syne reworking which seems completely devoid of anything musically interesting. I actively dislike that repeated rising then falling scale figure she introduces. It’s just uninspired .
I bow to no one in my admiration for Stephen Hough’s huge talent as a pianist but I just think he doesn’t write well for the instrument. That wide spacing he frequently employs to me sounds ugly and those repetitive heavily clustered left hand chords - well he should look at Bill Evans and thin things out a bit more.
Both pieces are just so old fashioned really.

I know there are some very talented composers out there - why aren’t we hearing them ?

[smittims]

I often wonder this . I can't believe the narrow selection of living British composers so frequently heard on Radio 3 represents the best currently available. Maybe others were approahed but declined as they didn't want to be subject to the restrictions imposed by the commission (length, subject). I wondered why Huw Watkins, for instance, who in my opinion is one of the finest living composers ( in any country) , didn't write anything for the Coronation. Maybe he was asked but didn't want to be associated with it. Who knows?