Corentin Boissier: Cello Sonata, op. 21 (2017)

[CorentinBoissier]

Hello,
I'm Corentin Boissier, French neoromantic composer (b. 1995). Here's my recent Sonata for Cello and Piano, op. 21 (2017), performed by the American cellist Eric Tinkerhess with myself at the piano. As this sonata is written in a style close to the one of French composers of the late XIXth/early XXth century, I think it should fit with this forum...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REB16n9_nYc
1- Lento grave – Allegro non troppo (11.39)
2- Scherzo : Presto con brio (8.37)
3- Recitativo – Allegro moderato ma risoluto (5.36)

[Alan Howe]

Thank you - and a very warm welcome to Unsung Composers!

Friends will find plenty of interest at M. Boissier's website:
http://www.corentinboissier.net/Corentin_Boissier,_composer/1._Welcome.html

Please also refer to this previous general thread about the composer:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=5778.0

And the composer's own YouTube channel is well worth consulting:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CorentinBoissier

[Alan Howe]

M. Boissier: have any commercial recordings been made of your music?

[CorentinBoissier]

There is no commercial recording of my music. All the recordings I upload on my YouTube and SoundCloud channels are realized by myself, with my own material.
Actually the situation is harsh in France for a young "neoromantic" composer, as for decades and decades, France doesn't want tonal/expressive/romantic music. Even if Pierre Boulez died in 2016, his influence still controls almost the entire French musical panorama. It's no surprise that I can't find any labels eager to commercially record my works, and most of my works have never been performed "live" in proper concert halls...
So I struggle to find some musicians interested in performing my works - I generally have to self-perform my piano works and the piano part of my chamber works.

[Alan Howe]

That's a shame.

How would you describe your compositional style? Which composers have influenced you the most? And how difficult is it to establish a personal style in this type of music?

By the way: this website makes a distinction between 'romantic' music and 'tonal' music. For example, we would acknowledge Shostakovich to be a tonal composer - but not a romantic one. We also make a distinction between 'romantic' and 'neo-romantic' music. For example, the music of, say, Barber's Violin Concerto would be classed by us as 'neo-romantic'.

[eschiss1]

Presumably especially early Barber (up to the 2nd essay for orchestra maybe?) rather moreso than middle or late Barber

[Alan Howe]

Yes, that'd be correct.

[CorentinBoissier]

Well, describing a compositional style with words is never easy - I would say that I like numerous composers (cf. my "collectionCB"s channels), that I'm without doubt influenced by many of them, and that I compose - for the time being - in a broadly-defined late romantic style, while adapting my language to the specificites of each work I want to compose, in such a way that I've composed several works which certainly wouldn't fit this forum, like for example my concert piece for piano Solitude or my Double Toccata, which are written in a more modern (yet rather tonal) style.

By the way, according to what I learnt at the Conservatory of Paris, the style of the early Barber can be described as "post-romantic" as it chronologically follows the romantic period while keeping much of the style and incorporating some more "modern" elements, while the word "neo-romantic" should be used to describe the style of composers writing after 1950 who try to reconnect with a broadly-defined romantic language without being themselves directly connected to the romantic tradition.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks! The problem is that there is no agreement on what these labels mean; here, for example, is an article which uses the term 'neo-Romantic' to refer to Barber, but which then goes on to say that the description doesn't really mean very much!>>
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/barber.php

I think the wider problem of broadly romantic music produced in our day is that, while enjoyable, it too easily sounds like the great music of the past. So, the question is: what does a romantic-style composer sound like in 2018? Can you avoid sounding like an epigone - or even a series of epigones?