"I'm a little Alma, not a little Mozart!"

[Serial_Apologist]

Didn't anyone else here this on this morning's Today??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040lqq4

I just checked this to make quite sure I hadn't dreamed it!

Alma Deutcher composed her violin concerto - of which fragments are heard, including her performing one - at age 9, and, now aged 11, is due to have her opera "Cinderella" performed soon in Vienna.

She speaks with the somewhat disconcerting manner and accent of a British 1930s documentary voiceover - and while it is nice to hear "too" pronounced as "too" rather than "tee" as English upper crust children these days tend to, I guess she's actually not English (or Welsh, Scots etc) at all, but probably educated abroad privately. Whether or not she is a child genius, I leave others to comment!

[ahinton]

Didn't anyone else here this on this morning's Today??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040lqq4

I just checked this to make quite sure I hadn't dreamed it!

Alma Deutcher composed her violin concerto - of which fragments are heard, including her performing one - at age 9, and, now aged 11, is due to have her opera "Cinderella" performed soon in Vienna.

She speaks with the somewhat disconcerting manner and accent of a 1930s documentary commentator - and while it is nice to hear "too" pronounced as "too" rather than "tee" as English upper crust children these days tend to, I guess she's actually not English (or Welsh, Scots etc) at all, but probably educated abroad privately. Whether or not she is a child genius, I leave others to comment!

Yes, I did. She can certainly play. Her music displayed no individuality as far as I could tell from the brief extracts relayed, but she did write it before her age reached double figures so, as an achievement in itself, it is obviously quite remarkable. I gather that she plays the piano as well, though we didn't hear an example of that. Whether she'll go on to be a major figure in music is anyone's guess, as indeed it would really have to be, given her age.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I heard it, too. (She's from Dorking, by the way.) A quite astonishing gift, her violin concerto would have passed muster as a rediscovered Fourth Concerto by Max Bruch - remarkable for a nine-year-old (and a remarkably good performance from the composer herself).

BUT - what also struck me was how different in attitude her Music is from child prodigies of the past; Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Korngold all wrote Music that sounded up-to-date at the time it was written: the Music we heard snippets of today was very clearly in a style from 150 years ago. And this strikes me as dangerously wrong - if only from the revelation that she probably hasn't been exposed to much of today's Music (unlike those previously-named prodigies, who would have heard little else).

But she was a charming kid, with extraordinary talents.

[subcontrabass]

She speaks with the somewhat disconcerting manner and accent of a British 1930s documentary voiceover - and while it is nice to hear "too" pronounced as "too" rather than "tee" as English upper crust children these days tend to, I guess she's actually not English (or Welsh, Scots etc) at all, but probably educated abroad privately. Whether or not she is a child genius, I leave others to comment!

According to Wikipedia she is home-schooled and lives in Dorking.

You can sample her music here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlmaDeutscher

[Serial_Apologist]

According to Wikipedia she is home-schooled and lives in Dorking.

You can sample her music here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlmaDeutscher

Thanks very much for this info, SCB.

[Richard Tarleton]

I heard the interview - I wanted Sarah to ask if she'd had any education in musical theory, harmony, composition etc., or whether it was all out of her head!

[Serial_Apologist]

I heard it, too. (She's from Dorking, by the way.) A quite astonishing gift, her violin concerto would have passed muster as a rediscovered Fourth Concerto by Max Bruch - remarkable for a nine-year-old (and a remarkably good performance from the composer herself).

BUT - what also struck me was how different in attitude her Music is from child prodigies of the past; Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Korngold all wrote Music that sounded up-to-date at the time it was written: the Music we heard snippets of today was very clearly in a style from 150 years ago. And this strikes me as dangerously wrong - if only from the revelation that she probably hasn't been exposed to much of today's Music (unlike those previously-named prodigies, who would have heard little else).

But she was a charming kid, with extraordinary talents.

I was also thinking of Britten's Simple Symphony, much of which was composed at the age of 11 I believe, and although that also shows a naivety one would expect of a child composer of that age, (I myself wrote a psalm theme at that age - my only written composition! ) I find there's a certain knowingness about the young Britten's very mannered pastiche.

[ahinton]

I heard it, too. (She's from Dorking, by the way.) A quite astonishing gift, her violin concerto would have passed muster as a rediscovered Fourth Concerto by Max Bruch - remarkable for a nine-year-old (and a remarkably good performance from the composer herself).

BUT - what also struck me was how different in attitude her Music is from child prodigies of the past; Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Korngold all wrote Music that sounded up-to-date at the time it was written: the Music we heard snippets of today was very clearly in a style from 150 years ago. And this strikes me as dangerously wrong - if only from the revelation that she probably hasn't been exposed to much of today's Music (unlike those previously-named prodigies, who would have heard little else).

But she was a charming kid, with extraordinary talents.

All agreed; perhaps the problem with her music sounding as though from a long since bygone era might in part that the sheer diversity of musics available to us now and the complexities of some of it put it rather beyond what even an immensely talented child of nine such as she was when she wrote her concerto might be capable of achieving either as performer or composer. I remember many years ago hearing an illustrated talk on the problems of what repertoire to give to exceptionally talented pianists of single-digit age and recall a fabulously talented 8 year old French girl (whose name I've long since forgotten but which seems not to have appeared since) getting her hands around Schumann's notoriously taxing Toccata, Chopin's B minor Scherzo and one of the less frequently peformed Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies with remarkable aplomb and abandon (how had she even developed the musculature to do all of this, for starters?) yet, when it came to Messiaen's Quatre Études en Rythme, she turned out a courageous performance that was well more than merely competent but throughout which you could tell that she was struggling; an extraordinary achievement that well-nigh beggared belief, but that difference couldn't help but be noticed (and no, she didn't attempt Evryali or Mists as an encore)...

[ahinton]

I heard the interview - I wanted Sarah to ask if she'd had any education in musical theory, harmony, composition etc., or whether it was all out of her head!

I can't quite imagine that even Sarah could have been quite that disingenuous!...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was also thinking of Britten's Simple Symphony, much of which was composed at the age of 11 I believe, and although that also shows a naivety one would expect of a child composer of that age, (I myself wrote a psalm theme at that age - my only written composition! ) I find there's a certain knowingness about the young Britten's very mannered pastiche.

IIRC, although the thematic material derives from Britten's childhood, the arrangements were made when he was a young adult?

But I like* your parallel with Britten's experience: whereas in previous centuries, young composers would be exposed to the latest Musical compositions as a matter of course, by the Twentieth, the Music of the past had become the standard fare.

* - in the sense that I think it's a good observation, that is; NOT in the sense that I "like" it at all!

[Serial_Apologist]

IIRC, although the thematic material derives from Britten's childhood, the arrangements were made when he was a young adult?

Yes ferney, according to WIKI he worked the themes into a symphony at age 20.

[Richard Barrett]

whereas in previous centuries, young composers would be exposed to the latest Musical compositions as a matter of course, by the Twentieth, the Music of the past had become the standard fare.

I guess that if such a very young person were to be writing novels in the style of Dickens, or poetry in the style of Wordsworth, or painting pictures in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites this would be thought remarkable but rather eccentric and odd, whereas writing music in the style of the mid-19th century is regarded as just remarkable. Of course this kind of phenomenon is not limited to children!

[gurnemanz]

According to Wikipedia she is home-schooled and lives in Dorking.

You can sample her music here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlmaDeutscher

I was interested to note that her father is the linguist, Guy Deutscher. I greatly enjoyed reading this book recently.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I guess that if such a very young person were to be writing novels in the style of Dickens, or poetry in the style of Wordsworth, or painting pictures in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites this would be thought remarkable but rather eccentric and odd, whereas writing music in the style of the mid-19th century is regarded as just remarkable.

I think it would be regarded as both "remarkable" and "odd" if a nine-year-old could produce such pastiche work of literature/painting - but it is bananas that it might be considered uncharitable to wonder why anyone would want to write in the style of Bruch!

Of course this kind of phenomenon is not limited to children!

I wonder: if a nine-year-old wrote a play in the style of, say, Fanny Kemble, would Anthony Sher and the RSC give it the same attention as Mehta and the VPO have this girl's opera?

[ahinton]

I guess that if such a very young person were to be writing novels in the style of Dickens, or poetry in the style of Wordsworth, or painting pictures in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites this would be thought remarkable but rather eccentric and odd, whereas writing music in the style of the mid-19th century is regarded as just remarkable. Of course this kind of phenomenon is not limited to children!

Indeed it isn't! There's a composer from Swansea who fits that bill and who's not been a child for quite some time; mercifully, there's another who manifestly doesn't...