Great review Simon – you raise plenty of interesting points here. I really enjoyed this piece, perhaps because it’s so flamboyantly OTT, but I can understand why some people might have found it irritating.
I must say I was surprised to hear what sounded like several direct quotes from Stravinsky’s Petrushka, particularly around the 25 min mark. That being said, the quotes didn’t sound forced or unnatural, and seemed to arise naturally from the musical material. Not that there’s anything wrong with quoting other composers, of course. Stravinsky himself was surely renowned for his brazen pilfering of other people’s ideas, even if he did manage to make them entirely his own. Good composers borrow, great composers steal…
i keep coming back to this over and over, most days of this last week that ive been off work. his music has captivated me since his music of today portrait with philharmonia three years ago. a fascinating balance of flamboyance and delicacy. some direct quotes from earlier work (around 16′ theres an extensive reference to ‘le reseau des reprises’ which is my (possibly now second) fav piece of his.
Thank you for this thoughtful and profound review, dear Simon Cummings.
And for the attentiveness of people like Oscar Ridout (Merci!) or the secretorganist.
To starry: I don’t know the Piano Concerto of Keith Emerson (didn’t even know that there is one) but will catch up on it.
Thank you Mr. Ammann! I must say I was unfamiliar with your music, but on the strength of this concerto I’ll certainly be searching out more of your work.
I’ve listened to this 4 times now. Yes, I really do like this piece. I also hear something like Petrushka, in my case it seemed to surface, at about 2.30. What’s that at 2.41? -I’ve heard something like that before. Then is that Bernstein at 6 plus minutes? Ravel, Rimsky-K; at one point my wife said “oh Debussy”.This happened time and again. Now this sounds like a criticism but no, no, no. I loved it. I’m not sure how much of the music was quoting other pieces- I think it was just messing with my mind. And I’m a willing “victim”. Thank you, Mr Ammann.
@Simon Jarvis
Except a kind of texture of Petrushka, there is no quote of any other music in the Concerto.
But what I let appear in my compositions are all the unconscious resonances of music that I have heard and internalized once or several times in my life.
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Great review Simon – you raise plenty of interesting points here. I really enjoyed this piece, perhaps because it’s so flamboyantly OTT, but I can understand why some people might have found it irritating.
I must say I was surprised to hear what sounded like several direct quotes from Stravinsky’s Petrushka, particularly around the 25 min mark. That being said, the quotes didn’t sound forced or unnatural, and seemed to arise naturally from the musical material. Not that there’s anything wrong with quoting other composers, of course. Stravinsky himself was surely renowned for his brazen pilfering of other people’s ideas, even if he did manage to make them entirely his own. Good composers borrow, great composers steal…
During some parts of this I thought of Keith Emerson’s Piano Concerto, though I liked that piece a great deal more than this.
i keep coming back to this over and over, most days of this last week that ive been off work. his music has captivated me since his music of today portrait with philharmonia three years ago. a fascinating balance of flamboyance and delicacy. some direct quotes from earlier work (around 16′ theres an extensive reference to ‘le reseau des reprises’ which is my (possibly now second) fav piece of his.
Thank you for this thoughtful and profound review, dear Simon Cummings.
And for the attentiveness of people like Oscar Ridout (Merci!) or the secretorganist.
To starry: I don’t know the Piano Concerto of Keith Emerson (didn’t even know that there is one) but will catch up on it.
Thank you Mr. Ammann! I must say I was unfamiliar with your music, but on the strength of this concerto I’ll certainly be searching out more of your work.
Thanks for the interest in what I create.
I’ve listened to this 4 times now. Yes, I really do like this piece. I also hear something like Petrushka, in my case it seemed to surface, at about 2.30. What’s that at 2.41? -I’ve heard something like that before. Then is that Bernstein at 6 plus minutes? Ravel, Rimsky-K; at one point my wife said “oh Debussy”.This happened time and again. Now this sounds like a criticism but no, no, no. I loved it. I’m not sure how much of the music was quoting other pieces- I think it was just messing with my mind. And I’m a willing “victim”. Thank you, Mr Ammann.
@Simon Jarvis
Except a kind of texture of Petrushka, there is no quote of any other music in the Concerto.
But what I let appear in my compositions are all the unconscious resonances of music that I have heard and internalized once or several times in my life.