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aaron cassidy
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« Reply #60 on: 16:23:26, 19-07-2007 » |
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its dense textures seemed to cohere only in the hushed final pages Off the top of my head, a less prejudiced ear listener might have said something like "after several minutes immersed in its dense textures, an expressive coherence began to emerge"... Off the top of my head, a less clueless listener might not say something quite so spectacularly stupid as this: Though [Bernstein's Age of Anxiety] has awkward pages, a performance like this, with Orli Shaham judging the piano part to perfection, makes you think this is one of the great orchestral works of the postwar era. |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #61 on: 16:33:48, 19-07-2007 » |
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(hh, I had a Sinfonietta commission years and years ago, which wasn't even for their full line-up. It was for six instruments. They allotted three hours' rehearsal in toto. By 2 1/2 hours in, the conductor pronounced it 'ready' for performance and sent everyone home early, despite my protestations that it was all over the place (especially rhythmically). The first performance was terrible - absolutely amateurish. And this was a commission!)
A bit off topic here (so apologies) but I feel it would be remiss of me not to say that the Sinfonietta played my piece rather well. Pierre-André Valade arranged some extra rehearsals for my piece and mediated between a rather stressed (and at times sleep-deprived) me and the performers who were struggling with the awkward notation (see above) as well as the complexity of their parts (ahem). The decision to drop the last movement was made at the first rehearsal, was pragmatic and made a lot of sense to me and I agreed with the decision to do so in the interests of a good performance. It would have been nice to have been told that they would like to do the whole thing in the future even if they were lying, but hey! I got a world premiere of the first three movements broadcast 'n' all from some very talented performers. I'm not complaining. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #62 on: 18:39:42, 19-07-2007 » |
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The fact that the CONDUCTOR went and asked for more rehearsal time and was turned down places this fiasco clearly in the shoes of the management that said 'no.' Martle was diplomatic enough to only imply this. I think it needs to be said outright. I know no "heads will roll", as dotcommunist hopes, but surely one of the few things that distinguishes this orchestra from a commercially or privately funded orchestra is that it plays the newest music and does its level best to play it well. All other things should be secondary when at all possible.
So where is the BBC functionary who will answer these charges? I stand here tapping my foot.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #63 on: 18:42:54, 19-07-2007 » |
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So where is the BBC functionary Apparently he's about to go off on sabbatical to tour the world and, erm, pop in at Covent Garden to do some work experience or something like that. Guess we'll be hearing Act 3 of the new Hayden opera any time soon then ... |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #64 on: 19:08:13, 19-07-2007 » |
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Sorry, t_i_n, but I don't understand what you are saying. Are you making an insinuation or reference to something that I don't know about?
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time_is_now
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« Reply #65 on: 19:10:01, 19-07-2007 » |
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I don't understand what you are saying. Don't worry, CD, it's a common experience! The orchestra's general manager is indeed about to go on sabbatical I believe (not sure how soon), but I wasn't trying to insinuate anything. |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #66 on: 20:05:28, 19-07-2007 » |
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What about the statement about Hayden opera?
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time_is_now
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« Reply #67 on: 20:23:20, 19-07-2007 » |
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Oh dear, are my jokes really so bad?
I was just speculating on the partial performances of new opera commissions we might be treated to if the BBC SO management took over the Royal Opera House.
Never mind. I've already got my coat on ...
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #68 on: 20:28:51, 19-07-2007 » |
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not bad, just not for the dense  |
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ahinton
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« Reply #69 on: 20:51:43, 19-07-2007 » |
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If the excellent David Robertson was not happy about the situation - and if that fact has somehow become known - then fine (except, of course, that the circumstances behind it are anything but fine). I am just very sorry about what happened, for it should not have happened. Since Mr Hayden did not apparently provide his score too late in accordance with his commission contract, he surely had the right to expect proper treatment which, notwithstanding the best will in the world of the performers and conductor, he (and his work) evidently did not get. Mr Robertson and BBCSO cannot reasonably have been expected to produce the goods on inadequate rehearsal time and if, as appears to be the case, Mr Robertson had no control over the amount of rehearsal time that he would presumably have liked and felt to be necessary for proper presentation of Mr Hayden's work, then he has been as heavily insulted as has Mr Hayden; can the BBC and its funders really afford publicly to offer such joint brickbats to Messrs Hayden and Robertson in that heady context of the first of this year's ten BBC Proms commisions? I hope not...
Best,
A very saddened and dejected Alistair
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dotcommunist
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« Reply #70 on: 21:02:36, 19-07-2007 » |
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as i said before, despite being somewhat unjustifiably poo-pooed by CD,
i'd like to see a rolling head, or 2
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #71 on: 21:06:02, 19-07-2007 » |
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I didn't poopoo the idea, dc, just doubt that it will happen.
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xyzzzz__
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« Reply #72 on: 12:55:46, 21-07-2007 » |
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To be positive about it, it did pass some kind of 'test' - it seemed really good, something I would want to spend a lot of time repeat-listening to/attending performances of. So given the conditions under which it ws given a performance in the first place...
That Guardian is a really vile piece of hackery - but this is par for the course.
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xyzzzz__
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« Reply #73 on: 13:06:00, 21-07-2007 » |
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I think Robertson could have made more of a noise about this, as in he ought to have said before playing the piece at the concert that the BBC didn't allow enough time and that is why people would only hear a section of the work (and that people might want to ask for a refund/heads to roll :-)).
Maybe that is unrealistic, I've no idea.
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