Kenneth Fuchs piano concerto

[Dave2002]

Has anyone tried the piano concerto by Kenneth Fuchs - Naxos, Jeffrey Biegel Jo Ann Falletta, LSO.

There's a trailer video for the recording here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtV6MZdlpE

[Serial_Apologist]

Has anyone tried the piano concerto by Kenneth Fuchs - Naxos, Jeffrey Biegel Jo Ann Falletta, LSO.

There's a trailer video for the recording here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtV6MZdlpE

For a work representing abstract paintings musically, it's very predictable and conservative in idiom. I wouldn't have dated it 1918, let alone 2018.

[Beef Oven!]

For a work representing abstract paintings musically, it's very predictable and conservative in idiom. I wouldn't have dated it 1918, let alone 2018.

I have three CDs by Fuchs, but not the pc. I'm not sure that predictability or 'conservative' are valid criticisms (unless music has to be a certain way). I have been buying and listening to quite a lot of York Bowen, lately.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have three CDs by Fuchs, but not the pc. I'm not sure that predictability or 'conservative' are valid criticisms (unless music has to be a certain way). I have been buying and listening to quite a lot of York Bowen, lately.

Not necessarily A certain way....

[kea]

For a work representing abstract paintings musically, it's very predictable and conservative in idiom. I wouldn't have dated it 1918, let alone 2018.

It's hard to date it to 1918 because the modular approach to form is fairly specific to post-1960 film music, the failed attempt at functional tonality takes place in a context of ubiquitous modal harmony from 1980s pop music (which did ultimately pick it up from Debussy & Ravel, but they obviously recognised that modality and functional tonality are incompatible and picked one or the other for any given piece), and the orchestration and use of timbre comes from the mature Richard Strauss by way of Korngold.

For all the attempts by this composer and many others to sound like they're writing in 1918, or in general to write classical pieces with V-I cadences, they tend to fail at it and instead sound much more like second-rate John Williams—simply because functional tonality and sonata form etc are really not part of the musical vernacular these days in any way, but rather things one studies at university.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's hard to date it to 1918 because the modular approach to form is fairly specific to post-1960 film music, the failed attempt at functional tonality takes place in a context of ubiquitous modal harmony from 1980s pop music (which did ultimately pick it up from Debussy & Ravel, but they obviously recognised that modality and functional tonality are incompatible and picked one or the other for any given piece), and the orchestration and use of timbre comes from the mature Richard Strauss by way of Korngold.

For all the attempts by this composer and many others to sound like they're writing in 1918, or in general to write classical pieces with V-I cadences, they tend to fail at it and instead sound much more like second-rate John Williams—simply because functional tonality and sonata form etc are really not part of the musical vernacular these days in any way, but rather things one studies at university.

Well put, kea!