I've listened to Naresh Sohal's The Cosmic Dances nine or ten times now and have enjoyed it more with each excursion. I find it entertaining, either by the movement or, more so, as a whole, and with each successive listen I've been less expecting of an accompanying film for which the music seemed tailor-made on its first outing.
When I am able to listen it is usually for only 10 minutes or so at a time, so I've managed this work in full only three times, once live. It is quite a substantial work and perhaps there is a sense of too little contrast between each of the six movements, and not enough substance to go round, and be rooted partly in the idiom of Varese and earlier Messiaen. Well, it's grown on me, and I'm pleased to have made its acquaintance.
Several movements begin very quietly and before the audience is quiet enough - I'm not sure whether that increases the feeling of order out of chaos or not - and the pauses between movements may well have been far too long. I edited these gaps out to five or six seconds and the whole sounds less bitty. Wonderful playing from the orchestra; I do hope they get to record it for Chandos.
I, as are most on these boards, am all for the BBC commissioning new works and the Proms featuring UK premieres of others; while the Proms isn't a festival of the avant-garde, it would be all the poorer for the lack of inclusion of these new, sometimes modern and occasionally ground-breaking pieces. However, programming is sometimes more than eccentric with a juxtaposition of works guaranteed to cause ill-feeling. "I came to listen to X; why should anyone think I'd want to listen to Y?" followed by "I didn't like that - it must be crap." On the other hand, restricting the new commissions to a ghetto as the BBC has done with its TV broadcasts for a start, is not the answer. I don't see any way round these menus of lobster and custard, followed by strawberry pavlova and Bisto - be thankful that the custard and Bisto are not already poured on, and may be sampled consecutively rather than simultaneously, or indeed, not at all.
Some would prefer the BBC to cast the net wider with its Commissions and hold no truck with anything with a hint of Middle C, others will bang on about these or other works being symptomatic of fat, white middle-class racist parasites. I think I'll go and investigate Sohal further.
When I am able to listen it is usually for only 10 minutes or so at a time, so I've managed this work in full only three times, once live. It is quite a substantial work and perhaps there is a sense of too little contrast between each of the six movements, and not enough substance to go round, and be rooted partly in the idiom of Varese and earlier Messiaen. Well, it's grown on me, and I'm pleased to have made its acquaintance.
Several movements begin very quietly and before the audience is quiet enough - I'm not sure whether that increases the feeling of order out of chaos or not - and the pauses between movements may well have been far too long. I edited these gaps out to five or six seconds and the whole sounds less bitty. Wonderful playing from the orchestra; I do hope they get to record it for Chandos.
I, as are most on these boards, am all for the BBC commissioning new works and the Proms featuring UK premieres of others; while the Proms isn't a festival of the avant-garde, it would be all the poorer for the lack of inclusion of these new, sometimes modern and occasionally ground-breaking pieces. However, programming is sometimes more than eccentric with a juxtaposition of works guaranteed to cause ill-feeling. "I came to listen to X; why should anyone think I'd want to listen to Y?" followed by "I didn't like that - it must be crap." On the other hand, restricting the new commissions to a ghetto as the BBC has done with its TV broadcasts for a start, is not the answer. I don't see any way round these menus of lobster and custard, followed by strawberry pavlova and Bisto - be thankful that the custard and Bisto are not already poured on, and may be sampled consecutively rather than simultaneously, or indeed, not at all.
Some would prefer the BBC to cast the net wider with its Commissions and hold no truck with anything with a hint of Middle C, others will bang on about these or other works being symptomatic of fat, white middle-class racist parasites. I think I'll go and investigate Sohal further.
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