Proms at Nottingham: BBC Young Composer, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brunt

**bluestateprommer** · 10-09-24, 21:54

Caught up with this 'delayed relay' Prom from Nottingham. Given that the composers are teenagers, and it would seem quite unfair to expect any sort of "masterpiece" from the get-go, this was a well-performed concert. To my ear, several of the works seemed to fall into 'space film music' mode-lite, with shimmering chords rather than any sort of big attempts at melody. The one exception, at least to me, was the last work, Gaia by Advaith Jagannath. By contrast, at least at the start, Reese Carly Manglicmot dared to be more harmonically crunchy with her work Una Voce, although she seemed to settle back into the "space film music-lite" mode later on.

In hindsight also, this concert puts the main Sunday Proms at Nottingham concert in perspective in terms of workload, since the BBC Concert Orchestra had to play this concert of totally new works on Saturday and the more 'conventional', though hardly all standard-repertoire, concert just around 24 hours later. So maybe A-MH knew not to push the musicians too hard for the larger program. Whatever the case, it must have been a thrill for the kids to hear their music performed live by a professional orchestra.

**smittims** · 11-09-24, 08:30

It's difficult to know what to say. One wants to encourage new classical composers, and I was relieved that they'd all tried to write genuine classical music rather than falling back on pop; it's easy to be patronising or blandly complimentary and to say ' yes, very nice' but they have put their music forward into the public space so maybe a little criticism isn't unwarranted.

Overall, I felt they were doing no more than showing what sounds they can make with an orchestra. There was little sense of structure, little feeling that the piece had to be that length,that the end meant something significantly different from the beginnning.

Celestial Awakening: Beautiful ,but too much Daphnis and Chloe. I didn't feel this composer lived in the 21st century.

Atmos: too much of one chord, a la John Adams. I feel this chap needs to take more risks.

Una Voce: Here I think the composer need so try harder to say something, rather than splashing lots of notes on the page. It didn't add up to anything.

Pale Blue Dot: Easily the most likeable and least 'showy' of the pieces, but very derivative, the adagio from Gayaneh meets Messaien's quartet .

Gaia: This was even more derivative, with Brahms, Vaughan Williams and Ravel emerging too often. I have to say I don't think this piece should have been included. This composer hasn't really begun yet.

Oh dear, I've been more severe than I meant to be, but a cold shower is more use than leaving them under the sun lamp. One thing that struck me, maybe I'm showing my age, is that all but one of the composers had names which to me are unusual. I wondered if ethnic minority was given preference, to encourage participation . Fifty years ago the young composers on Radio 3 would be grammar-school boys called Jeremy, Nicholas, Dominic and Benedict. Times change (not always for the worse).

Proms at Nottingham: BBC Young Composer, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brunt

Proms at Nottingham: BBC Young Composer, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brunt

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