Two New-ish Piano Concertos ...
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One from a young prodigy Alma Deutscher, composed in 2017, performed in Carnegie Hall in December 2019 :
Link to videoOne from a more established composer Thomas Adés, performed live in the Boston symphony hall in 2019 but released as a recording ore recently in Feb. 2020:
Link to video
(Use YouTube’s sidebar to get to the next two movements.)Enjoy!
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Thanks for the links, Ax.
I just started watching the Deutcher piano concerto. After 5:30 or so, I'm liking it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Deutscher
In May 2018, Deutscher was invited by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to perform during a memorial service for the end of the war in Europe, where she played an adaptation of part of her piano concerto, and later accompanied the Vienna Boys' Choir.[57] A few weeks later, she also played for the Austrian Chancellor and the Russian President Vladimir Putin during the latter's state visit to Austria.[58]
In December 2019, in a concert dedicated to her own compositions, she gave her debut at the sold-out Carnegie Hall in New York to standing ovations.[59][60]
My Book of Melodies, a piano album of compositions that she wrote between the ages of four and 14, appeared with Sony Classical Records in November 2019.[61]
A while ago I posted that Spotify's "New Classical This Week" playlist had so much "elevator" and "movie" music on it. Totally uninspiring and boring as hell. This has melody and drama.
I'm not smart enough to know how good a pianist or composer Deutcher is. But, I certainly have enjoyed this - at least so far.
Again, thanks.
By the way, she composed this when she was 12 or 13....
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"Alma and her dangerous love of melody"
(translation from Safari)
The German-language world premiere of Alma Deutscher's opera "Cinderella" recently took place in the Baumgartner Casino. I had the privilege to be there and experience the enthusiasm of the audience up close. There were standing ovations for the young composer, for her work and for the committed contributors.
In the media comments that followed, amazement at the talent of the composer, who was only eleven years old and who also cuts a fine figure as a violinist and on the piano, dominated. The concern that the child should not be taken away from her was also frequently raised. Comments on the character of the compositions of little Alma were rarely made. The comparison with little Mozart, who also saw his first opera performed at the age of eleven, was mentioned and at the same time rejected (Alma himself does not seem to appreciate him very much either). And occasionally the - correct - remark was made that Alma's opera was committed to the classical-romantic tradition. Whereupon connoisseurs added that even the young Mozart did not come out of nowhere, came from the Mannheim school et cetera.
The specter of "cultural populism"
The rushing success that the child prodigy Alma Deutscher is currently reaping is therefore mainly discussed from the point of view of the giftedness of children. But there is also another approach. Let us assume that the opera "Cinderella" was not written by an eleven-year-old child but by a forty-year-old man, and the world premiere would not take place in a suburban casino, but in a state opera house. Would there be similar storms of cheers from the audience? I guess so. And would the criticism be just as friendly and sympathetic? Not at all.
Rather, it would be expected that Deutscher's work would be dismissed as "out of date" kitsch and the uninhibited love of melody expressed in it as a document of musical inferiority. If the audience is too successful, bitter attacks from "advanced" cultural theorists would be expected, the subsidy taps would be turned off and the specter of "cultural populism" would be conjured up. This danger also threatens an older Alma Deutscher if she sticks to her love of melody. But she wouldn't be in bad company.
Not in bad company
Theodor Adorno remarked poisonously about Giacomo Puccini's music that such music was "the worse the more pretentious it was", and something similar could be heard from Gerard Mortier, who, according to reports, imposed a kind of ban on Puccini at the Salzburg Festival. Hobby tenors can still celebrate triumphs with the "Nessun dorma" in casting shows, and world successes like "Time to say good-bye" testify to the survival of the operatic chants. Perhaps the opera, which is so often declared dead, can gain new vitality by turning back to melody. The brilliant child Alma may have had a part in this. (Robert Schediwy, January 13, 2017)
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Deutscher has been on my radar for a couple of years already. I wonder how she develops. She was impressive as a child prodigy, but now she needs to show that she can go beyond that. There is of course nothing wrong with great melodies, but, even if this is obviously extremely impressive for a child, the music sounds rather derivative.
The Adés concerto is not my cup of tea.