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Posted: |
Mar 28, 2015 - 10:46 AM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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Aye. Just got back to Liverpool after savouring another lovely piece by Horner.
Well, it's not that Williams/Morricone style classical stuff from James.
He's melodic, soothing and 'his style' all the way.
The piece is called 'Collage : A Concerto for Four Horns & Orchestra. (dur = 24 mins).
It came about from his association with three of the nights performers for the past 20 years (Jim Thatcher, David Pyatt & Richard Watkins - John Ryan was the 4th Horn) playing on his film scores.
Pyatt finally asked Horner to write a four-horn concerto and this was the result.
Right, as is usual with Horner, fragments of his other works bleed into it, albeit vaguely and dreamily. I was reminded of the following while floating away on it's beauty...CBS Fanfare/Four Feathers, Spiderwick Chronicles, Spitfire Grill and a smile-inducing quote (or three) of Krull (or Enterprise Clears Moorings...you choose) and some Battle Beyond The Stars!
It doesn't hold together as well as his Double Violin Concerto for me, but it is still lovely new music from someone who seems to be enjoying his writing these days.
He was in attendance and was beckoned onstage (from a few rows behind us) by the Horn players during the applause and seemed really chuffed with the adulation and applause he/the piece received.
Great stuff and I hope it gets released on CD sometime soon (it's a pity it couldn't have occupied some room on the forthcoming Double Violin Concerto CD).
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A good friend of mine who attended the concert had that to say about the Horner piece:
“4 horns playing unison, two pianos and two harps who have nothing to do, overorchestrated as a nostalgic Hollywood blockbuster from the 80s with thematic material that is just repeated over and over again without any development whatsoever. Then came Rimsky-Korsakov. He showed how to do it properly.
Now, James Horner showed himself as a second rate nostalgic romantic yesterday who just delivered what he already delivered 30 years ago in his movie scores. He obviously didn't know how to orchestrate properly on his own and had no clue whatsoever as to how use four horns in an interesting way. Listening to his work, I expected to see the enterprise taking off any second. There was nothing fresh or original about it.
And “Classical Concert Review” had that to say about Horner`s work:
“Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.“
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Ouch!
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A good friend of mine who attended the concert had that to say about the Horner piece:
“4 horns playing unison, two pianos and two harps who have nothing to do, overorchestrated as a nostalgic Hollywood blockbuster from the 80s with thematic material that is just repeated over and over again without any development whatsoever. Then came Rimsky-Korsakov. He showed how to do it properly.
Now, James Horner showed himself as a second rate nostalgic romantic yesterday who just delivered what he already delivered 30 years ago in his movie scores. He obviously didn't know how to orchestrate properly on his own and had no clue whatsoever as to how use four horns in an interesting way. Listening to his work, I expected to see the enterprise taking off any second. There was nothing fresh or original about it. As I try to actually achieve something today, this will be my last comment here.
And “Classical Concert Review” had that to say about Horner`s work:
“Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.“
Reading this, I'm reminded of the bitter theatre critic in Birdman
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Posted: |
May 22, 2015 - 9:18 AM
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By: |
johnbijl
(Member)
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A good friend of mine who attended the concert had that to say about the Horner piece:
“4 horns playing unison, two pianos and two harps who have nothing to do, overorchestrated as a nostalgic Hollywood blockbuster from the 80s with thematic material that is just repeated over and over again without any development whatsoever. Then came Rimsky-Korsakov. He showed how to do it properly.
Now, James Horner showed himself as a second rate nostalgic romantic yesterday who just delivered what he already delivered 30 years ago in his movie scores. He obviously didn't know how to orchestrate properly on his own and had no clue whatsoever as to how use four horns in an interesting way. Listening to his work, I expected to see the enterprise taking off any second. There was nothing fresh or original about it. As I try to actually achieve something today, this will be my last comment here.
And “Classical Concert Review” had that to say about Horner`s work:
“Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.“
Reading this, I'm reminded of the bitter theatre critic in Birdman
Where were these posted?
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