Proms Saturday Matinee 1: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (25.07.15)

[MrGongGong]

So what do folks think?

I loved Shiori's piece (but then I would say that)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The music?
Boulez Notations - so good with orchestral colour (does that make me a pleb?)
Shiori Usui - I was in rapt attention throughout; will listen to this one again (many times)
Betsy Jolas - Mind boggling intensity from the start
Joanna Lee - I'm not so sure about this one. I felt as though I'd experienced the same concept before, but better. I'll give it another go.
Pierre Boulez Dérive Deux - An Alpine Symphony length work from Boulez! It was the moments of repose that I felt greatest affinity with on first hearing. Clarity of scoring - a Boulez characteristic - was well brought out by the performers, but I would imagine a performance conducted by the composer to emphasise this even further. The ending reminded me of a Bartok String Quartet.

The presentation?
Listening to composers talking about their own music is like listening to Wayne Rooney describing how he scored a goal. Alternatively a GCSE student having to say something about a composition before performing it. I suspect the composers would rather let the music speak for itself?

In summary - a great concert musically, but let's keep the chat to a minimum (or zero). How about programme notes?
I wonder, too, whether there should have been an interval. I know it was a short concert, but with music of such intensity, a 10-15 minute break for the final work (without Tom Service talking) might have been beneficial.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A better bet for today than Hereford IMV

I think you are really a secret admirer of the work your idée fixe suggests you despise. Otherwise, why would you keep repeating what we already think we know?

[doversoul1]

Before Usui’s work was performed, we were told in detail what the composer intended to express with the music: ants, spores, and leaves. With Tom Service’s helpful comment about David Attenborough’s programmes, once the music started, it was, to me, like listening to the soundtrack of a series of images. If the work is a representation of such a precise image, can the music be meaningfully listened to without the information about this image?

Jolas was also asked about the ‘story’ but his was quite vague and did not get in the way of the music unless I was missing the point (most likely). I liked The Joke effect. (I guess it wasn’t intended).

I must have overdosed myself by the time Lee’s work started and all I could think was ‘sounds typical’.

I wasn’t going to listen to the main work but once it started, I found (it may sound absurd) that it sounded ‘lean’ in a similar way (well, remotely) to early Baroque instrumental music, which made it unexpectedly enjoyable (I expect this is a wrong word) to listen to.

[MrGongGong]

Before Usui’s work was performed, we were told in detail what the composer intended to express with the music: ants, spores, and leaves. With Tom Service’s helpful comment about David Attenborough’s programmes, once the music started, it was, to me, like listening to the soundtrack of a series of images. If the work is a representation of such a precise image, can the music be meaningfully listened to without the information about this image?

Yes

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The length of the final work made me consider something that had not occurred to me before. The work appeared to be in the same key throughout, simply because it was atonal, and therefore did not have the key contrasts of a long key-based work. In shorter works, such as the Boulez Notations and most Webern works, this isn't really an issue.

[Quarky]

As a post-script, I found the half hour illuminated resumé of Boulez' career on CD review very useful in the way of reminding me/ informing me of the key points of his music.

Always felt that his aggressive public statements were at odds with his composed music, which usually leaves me feeling at peace.

[Serial_Apologist]

The length of the final work made me consider something that had not occurred to me before. The work appeared to be in the same key throughout, simply because it was atonal, and therefore did not have the key contrasts of a long key-based work. In shorter works, such as the Boulez Notations and most Webern works, this isn't really an issue.

Or no key.

[Serial_Apologist]

As a post-script, I found the half hour illuminated resumé of Boulez' career on CD review very useful in the way of reminding me/ informing me of the key points of his music.

There seems to be an outbreak of pun-itis around today.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Or no key.

That's rather like a 13th key though - to me anyway.
(Before anyone pulls me up on this, saying there are 24 keys, that isn't strictly true, as we are dealing additionally with modes when we make such a claim.)

[MrGongGong]

That's rather like a 13th key though - to me anyway.

That's interesting
I find that I can choose to listen with a "key" head on or off
In the same way that when I listen to Indian music it doesn't sound like it's in "keys" or "modes" but Rags which are neither (even if the music is in a Rag which has exactly the same notes as a major scale, for example).

[Daniel]

Haven't had the chance to hear many proms so far (nice to read reports of ones I've missed ), but listened to this one.

I didn't get much from the Usui I'm afraid. Will listen again in case it was a mood thing. The Joanna Lee grabbed my attention little more though it did feel a rather beaten path - to my ears the songs had a feeling of lineage to the world of Britten's Peter Grimes and Death in Venice.

Boulez certainly felt like the master painter in this company to me, Derive 2 was sonically like removing one's headphones and wandering into a rainforest.

[Quarky]

I understand Boulez is currently in poor health, and unlikely to respond to a charge of acting like a fascist:

http://slippedisc.com/2015/06/french-rage-michel-legrand-accuses-pierre-boulez-of-acting-like-a-fascist/

Let's hope he gets well soon.

Andrew McGregor / CD Review on Boulez is absolutely brilliant in my book, and on which strength I have ordered DG Complete works of Boulez - cut price versions available!

Music matters discussion from March 2015 still available on iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05mppyb