I can't speak to "best," but I can discuss some of my favorite concert works by composers who are now primarily known for their film work - but who have had healthy concert careers. I'll try to avoid addressing pieces already mentioned by others.
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - his "Partita for Orchestra" ranks as one of my favorite pieces in his entire oeuvre. It uses its form and structure to great effect, and the first movement, with its heavy use of triple meter, and the occasional irregular bar, makes for a supremely energetic work. The other two movements are equally lovely and energizing - with the second movement's extended oboe solo wending its way through shifting orchestral patterns - but the first movement is really quite marvelous. I seem to recall hearing someone mimic parts of the third movement of the piece somewhere - but I honestly can't recall where, or if my memory is totally failing me. Though it doesn't count as "absolute music," I think Sir Richard's opera "The Mines of Sulphur," is quite marvelous, with some marvelous serial construction and provides an in-depth look into the more acerbic, strident side of his writing.
Lalo Schifrin - I mentioned these two pieces in the "Top 5 Schifrin" Thread, but I think his "Concerto for Double Bass" has some absolutely marvelous writing that wends its way between romantic, impressionistic, and Schifrin-esque (naturally) ideas - and the writing for double bass is quite virtuosic. Again, I think the first movement is just dynamite, it really throws the listener into a wonderful melange of musical ideas. I'm not sure if it counts entirely, but I also love his "Jazz Mass," which has some really daring choral writing mixed in with the big band and soloists. It's been a while since I've heard it, but I also remember being quite taken with his "Liliuokalani Symphony."
Jerry Goldsmith - I think I must be the only one who really loves "Christus Apollo." There's something so bizarre and marvelous to me about the way the text and music work together - and there are dollops of Goldsmith's sudden ability to turn the orchestra into a caged animal, rattling at its bars, before it returns to its more cerebral, elegiac place. His other two major concert pieces are just swell, too, even though they couldn't be more different.
Bernard Herrmann - "For the Fallen" is a perfect piece of programmatic music - there's such an unrelenting inevitability to the way Herrmann builds up his ostinato throughout - and the writing is quite moving. I also really enjoy his String Quartet "Echoes," which is rather moving, and one can't really go too wrong with Herrmann string writing. Again, not concert work, but I think "Wuthering Heights," may be his definitive magnum opus - I picked up a copy of the piano/vocal score back in my undergraduate days, and scarcely a month or so goes by when I don't find myself playing something from it. Lucille Fletcher's libretto is brilliant, and Herrmann's music aches and pulses with the inner lives of the people - I love it.
Leonard Rosenman - I love them all - the piano solos, the duos, the chamber works, and the full scale pieces - but I have to draw special attention to "Foci I," a real orchestral trip which is dizzying in its orchestration and musical dexterity, my beloved "Violin Concerto II," which is incredibly challenging for soloist and orchestra alike (and has four female vocalists sitting with the woodwind section), and never fails to keep me on my toes - and "Chamber Music II," which integrates tape, soprano soloist and ensemble in a series of entrancing permutations - it's absolutely wild and hauntingly beautiful in the way it progresses. If you're at all a Rosenman fan, his other concert works offer tremendous aural and musical riches, too.
Jerome Moross - His ballets and things like "Willie the Weeper," and "Those Everlasting Blues," are favorites, and what I love about Moross is that his voice is so unmistakable and individual regardless of the setting and function. The way he seems to have integrated the musical vernacular of Americana into every facet of his writing is always great. Again, not "absolute music," but his musical-opera "The Golden Apple," is one of the best things he's ever written, and one of my favorite musicals - the existing recording is great, but is easily missing more than half of the score.
John Scott - I don't have a lot of his film music, but I do have his "Odyssey of the Belem" tone poem, and I think it's pretty great - very much in the Sir Arthur Bliss/Vaughan-Williams/Walton/Delius style (Delius is one of my favorites, so hearing anything with even slight hints of his influence is always a treat), while having its own unique idiosyncracies - particularly in its emotionally fluctuating second movement.
Maurice Jarre - I'm not much of a Jarre fan, but I think the disc of his concert works is utterly smashing - particularly his "Mobiles for Solo Violin and Orchestra," which takes an almost Stockhausen/John Cage like structural idea (the "random choice" element of which passages to play next) and creates something unique and wonderful over the course of its thirty minute running time. I also love his dances for Ondes Martenot (I know it's a polarizing instrument, but I love it!) and percussion, which are almost a master class in percussion writing.
I've definitely blathered on long enough now. Apologies to all - at 4 am, I tend to ramble on even moreso than usual. If I think of any others that I think are worth noting, I'll do another painful, pointless entry.
can't speak to "best," but I can discuss some of my favorite concert works by composers who are now primarily known for their film work - but who have had healthy concert careers. I'll try to avoid addressing pieces already mentioned by others.
And what about Rozsa's works? I do like the piano concerto, the violin concerto.
Herrmann's Symphony is incredible and The Fantasticks a small lovely work.
I've never enjoyed any of the John Williams concert pieces I've heard, but all the ones by Lee Holdridge I have on CD are very good indeed. Deeply romantic and beautifully thematic.
I can't speak to "best," but I can discuss some of my favorite concert works by composers who are now primarily known for their film work - but who have had healthy concert careers. I'll try to avoid addressing pieces already mentioned by others.
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - his "Partita for Orchestra" ranks as one of my favorite pieces in his entire oeuvre. It uses its form and structure to great effect, and the first movement, with its heavy use of triple meter, and the occasional irregular bar, makes for a supremely energetic work. The other two movements are equally lovely and energizing - with the second movement's extended oboe solo wending its way through shifting orchestral patterns - but the first movement is really quite marvelous. I seem to recall hearing someone mimic parts of the third movement of the piece somewhere - but I honestly can't recall where, or if my memory is totally failing me. Though it doesn't count as "absolute music," I think Sir Richard's opera "The Mines of Sulphur," is quite marvelous, with some marvelous serial construction and provides an in-depth look into the more acerbic, strident side of his writing.
Lalo Schifrin - I mentioned these two pieces in the "Top 5 Schifrin" Thread, but I think his "Concerto for Double Bass" has some absolutely marvelous writing that wends its way between romantic, impressionistic, and Schifrin-esque (naturally) ideas - and the writing for double bass is quite virtuosic. Again, I think the first movement is just dynamite, it really throws the listener into a wonderful melange of musical ideas. I'm not sure if it counts entirely, but I also love his "Jazz Mass," which has some really daring choral writing mixed in with the big band and soloists. It's been a while since I've heard it, but I also remember being quite taken with his "Liliuokalani Symphony."
Jerry Goldsmith - I think I must be the only one who really loves "Christus Apollo." There's something so bizarre and marvelous to me about the way the text and music work together - and there are dollops of Goldsmith's sudden ability to turn the orchestra into a caged animal, rattling at its bars, before it returns to its more cerebral, elegiac place. His other two major concert pieces are just swell, too, even though they couldn't be more different.
Bernard Herrmann - "For the Fallen" is a perfect piece of programmatic music - there's such an unrelenting inevitability to the way Herrmann builds up his ostinato throughout - and the writing is quite moving. I also really enjoy his String Quartet "Echoes," which is rather moving, and one can't really go too wrong with Herrmann string writing. Again, not concert work, but I think "Wuthering Heights," may be his definitive magnum opus - I picked up a copy of the piano/vocal score back in my undergraduate days, and scarcely a month or so goes by when I don't find myself playing something from it. Lucille Fletcher's libretto is brilliant, and Herrmann's music aches and pulses with the inner lives of the people - I love it.
Leonard Rosenman - I love them all - the piano solos, the duos, the chamber works, and the full scale pieces - but I have to draw special attention to "Foci I," a real orchestral trip which is dizzying in its orchestration and musical dexterity, my beloved "Violin Concerto II," which is incredibly challenging for soloist and orchestra alike (and has four female vocalists sitting with the woodwind section), and never fails to keep me on my toes - and "Chamber Music II," which integrates tape, soprano soloist and ensemble in a series of entrancing permutations - it's absolutely wild and hauntingly beautiful in the way it progresses. If you're at all a Rosenman fan, his other concert works offer tremendous aural and musical riches, too.
Jerome Moross - His ballets and things like "Willie the Weeper," and "Those Everlasting Blues," are favorites, and what I love about Moross is that his voice is so unmistakable and individual regardless of the setting and function. The way he seems to have integrated the musical vernacular of Americana into every facet of his writing is always great. Again, not "absolute music," but his musical-opera "The Golden Apple," is one of the best things he's ever written, and one of my favorite musicals - the existing recording is great, but is easily missing more than half of the score.
John Scott - I don't have a lot of his film music, but I do have his "Odyssey of the Belem" tone poem, and I think it's pretty great - very much in the Sir Arthur Bliss/Vaughan-Williams/Walton/Delius style (Delius is one of my favorites, so hearing anything with even slight hints of his influence is always a treat), while having its own unique idiosyncracies - particularly in its emotionally fluctuating second movement.
Maurice Jarre - I'm not much of a Jarre fan, but I think the disc of his concert works is utterly smashing - particularly his "Mobiles for Solo Violin and Orchestra," which takes an almost Stockhausen/John Cage like structural idea (the "random choice" element of which passages to play next) and creates something unique and wonderful over the course of its thirty minute running time. I also love his dances for Ondes Martenot (I know it's a polarizing instrument, but I love it!) and percussion, which are almost a master class in percussion writing.
I've definitely blathered on long enough now. Apologies to all - at 4 am, I tend to ramble on even moreso than usual. If I think of any others that I think are worth noting, I'll do another painful, pointless entry.
I can't find any of Leonard rose mans work except chamber music IV and v. What album is this on??
Geert: Other people in the thread have already discussed and delved into Rózsa's prolific concert output, as well as the Herrmann symphonies - so, while I think the world of all of them, I didn't feel the need to bring them up again. Same reason I didn't mention Korngold at all.
jkannry: Most of Rosenman's concert work are only available in private recordings done by his publisher, which is how I heard the Second Violin Concerto - they gave me a recording when I was in talks to conduct a movement from it. However, you can hear Chamber Music No. 2 and most of Foci I (as well as his equally magnificent Chamber Music 4 [a double bass concerto that has to be heard to be believed!] and Chamber Music 5, which has a fascinating, funny story behind its creation) on an interview that Leonard did on "Morning Concert." You can find it on www.archive.org.
Elliot Goldenthal's OTHELLO is a favourite (although I'm not sure if a ballet qualifies as a concert work).
Williams has MANY great ones (he has more than 60 works for the concert stage on his resume), but maybe the favourite is the bassoon concerto (aka THE FIVE SACRED TREES).
i was thinking about this again as Horner just wrote his Double Concerto (release in May) and has another classical piece coming, James Newton Howard just premiered his Violin Concerto (paired with his first concert work on CD soon), Elfman wrote his one or two pieces...there definitely seems to be an attraction to the concert hall for these composers but it seems to me that it seems just a distant flirtation for most. The harsh unwelcoming nature of the culture of "concert music", the lack of repeat performances, and the lack of money and broad cultural interest probably limit them from doing more.
Anyway, I heard JNH talking about relishing the chance to find out what his own music might sound like when away from film, and how he thought it might yield a "higher quality of music" than a film composer might not otherwise have a chance to write.
Without question I find that Miklos Rozsas's concert music is the best of any film composer. I also like many of Korngold's concert works, and Elmer Bernstein's Guitar Concerto is excellent.
A word in here for Walter Scharf : the Palestine Suite, written in 1945, and the Israeli Suite, which premiered in 1993; both (as far as I know) still available on CDs.
Orchestrators: this may be a small point but I find it a disappointment that when writing their own concert music that film composers still use orchestrators. Why? Conrad Pope co-orchestrated JNH's two pieces. Elfman used his orchestrators for his two concert works.
On the other hand Williams, Rozsa, Goldenthal, and Goldsmith all did it themselves. JNH said that it took him a year and a half to write his Violin Concerto. Why would he need an orchestrator? Don't they know the idea behind the concert hall is that it's your music on every level?
Orchestrators: this may be a small point but I find it a disappointment that when writing their own concert music that film composers still use orchestrators. Why? Conrad Pope co-orchestrated JNH's two pieces. Elfman used his orchestrators for his two concert works.
On the other hand Williams, Rozsa, Goldenthal, and Goldsmith all did it themselves. JNH said that it took him a year and a half to write his Violin Concerto. Why would he need an orchestrator? Don't they know the idea behind the concert hall is that it's your music on every level?
Remember, a lot of these guys kinda "fall into" symphonic writing via film scoring and, even if classically-trained, aren't "composer's composers" at their core in the same way the guys you mentioned plus John Scott, Lee Holdridge, etc. are. So this really shouldn't come as a huge surprise.
Plus, there's a terrible Hollywood mindset that orchestrators are a must. The truly great composers alive today (none of whom work in Hollywood, at least not with any true regularity) don't tend to use them - See Roque Banos, Philippe Rombi, Abel Korzeniowski, Michiru Oshima... These composers handle such duties alone usually, because their symphonic aptitude is vast and needn't the "help" (plus, deadlines are probably less shitty overseas to boot!)
I did an entire show dedicated to concert music by film composers including a one hour tribute to Kamen's concert work and Andrew Pearce's brilliant piece MAESTRO written for the LSO's principal trumpet, Philip Cobb.
Though it's not quite the same, even some of the greats have handed certain things off to orchestrators -- most notably Debussy who wrote a pair of ballets, Khamma and La Boite a Joujoux and a.....large work for narrator, chorus and orchestra, The Matyre of St. Sebastian...which were mostly orchestrated by Koechlin (Khamma) and Caplet (the other two).
And going back even further, Liszt also had help from Raff in his early symphonic poems and a couple other works, though the form we hear them today is pretty much all Liszt (same with the Six Hungarian Rhapsodies, which Doppler mostly did and Liszt 'signed off' on as it were).
