Călin Humă Symphony Concerto f. Piano and Orchestra, Symphony No. 1 'Carpatica'

[Wheesht]

Călin Humă was a completely new name to me when I came across no fewer than five very positive to enthusiastic reviews of his CD released by Guild in a recent edition of Fanfare. I have had the CD for a few days and find myself returning to it again and again.
His homepage is here, a live recording of his symphony can be found here, and the first movement of the Symphony-Concerto from the CD is here.

[JP]

You can get the entire Youtube sidebar display listing of the CD tracks here:  < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoMyCjJsbIA&list=OLAK5uy_kI0p6y11ky_D8ez-uzjxBpU45Ddhw5r5E >

[Alan Howe]

Sorry to sound a negative note here, but are these any more than amorphous film music-style pieces parading as serious compositions? Fun, perhaps, but essentially here today and gone tomorrow?

[Gareth Vaughan]

are these any more than amorphous film music-style pieces parading as serious compositions?

I am afraid that was rather my feeling too.

[Alan Howe]

There's a lot of this type of stuff on Classic FM. Good for ten minutes, but...

[TerraEpon]

Oh sounds like it'll probably be great music to those of us who don't have a stick up our *** then.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I don't think there is any call to be offensive.

[Alan Howe]

Oh sounds like it'll probably be great music to those of us who don't have a stick up our *** then.

Sounds rather uncomfortable. I've looked, but there's nothing there. Just an honest opinion, candidly expressed.

Seriously: There's nothing like an ad hominem comment, is there? I mean, let's destroy someone's character (namely, mine) instead of engaging with the music. If you think Humă's stuff is good, please tell us why.

[Wheesht]

It's all in the nuances, though isn't it? Like referring to Humă's pieces as 'stuff' for instance. An honest opinion, candidly expressed, is absolutely fine by me, of course, but I'd seriously like to know, not having any experience with Classic FM, 1) which bit you thought 'good for ten minutes', and, more importantly and more interestingly, why you think these are pieces parading as serious compositions? What is a serious composition, and is only a serious composition worth listening to? I for one don't mind film-music style pieces, even without a film. I cannot say that I have been moved to the very core of my being by Humă's works, but I do enjoy the atmosphere he creates – enough to have bought the CD and to want to listen to it again. Does that make me a 'light-weight listener' who is all too easily taken in by some rather bland fun? Perhaps.

[Alan Howe]

'Stuff', by the way, is a totally neutral word. Is calling Reinecke's 3rd Symphony 'magnificent stuff' somehow derogatory? Of course not.

Classic FM, which I often listen to, is well-known for broadcasting wonderful-sounding excerpts from film scores which, when listened to in their entirety, turn out to be aimless and repetitive. Now, if that's what floats your boat, that's fine with me. Except that in Humă's case we have evidently a 'Symphony' and a 'Symphony-Concerto' and it simply struck me that this was a case of over-ambition on the composer's part. Perhaps if he'd called them something else...

Anyway, it's just my opinion. I'm quite content for you believe otherwise. And I have no problem with the enjoyment of this music. It's often very beautiful. I just felt that there was a sort of 'cognitive dissonance' between what I was hearing and the rather grand titles the music had been given. And after ten minutes I was bored with Humă's music, no matter what I tried. My loss, probably, but there we are...

Oh, by the way, I'm very fond of Percy Grainger.

[TerraEpon]

So your problem is you were expecting a symphony and it's not....formal I guess....enough for you?

If he had just called it a suite, or (I dunno, VERY randomly) 'Mediterranean Impressions' or 'Portrait of the Alps' (or whatEVER) it'd be fine?

[Mark Thomas]

I've got to say that I quite enjoy this music too. It's not something I'd regard as a "destination listen", but at the level of being an undemanding, pleasant experience it's a whole heap better than a lot of  "art music" produced in the last 100 years. Music like this does have its place in my collection because I don't always want to be scaling the heights with the greats of the musical pantheon. I agree that calling both pieces a Symphony does unjustifiably up the ante, but if Mahler could call his Eighth a Symphony, then for me at least it long ago became just a name for a monumental piece of music - the requirement of symphonic rigour was abandoned over a century ago.

Also unjustifiable by the way, no matter how miffed he might have felt, is TerraEpon's *ed language in his first post.

[Alan Howe]

So your problem is you were expecting a symphony and it's not....formal I guess....enough for you?

Partly, yes.

If he had just called it a suite, or (I dunno, VERY randomly) 'Mediterranean Impressions' or 'Portrait of the Alps' (or whatEVER) it'd be fine?

No, I'd still think it was OK for ten minutes and then, beyond that, it's just 'wallpaper music'.

Anyway, with that I'll bow out of the discussion. Still can't find that stick...

[Gareth Vaughan]

And after ten minutes I was bored with Humă's music,

This, unfortunately, was precisely my reaction. The Symphony-Concerto began arrestingly and I thought we were going to be in for some stirring, grandiose, Hollywood-style music (which, by the way, I quite enjoy) but the impetus seemed to peter out and then the music meandered about rhapsodically without actually appearing to go anywhere - at least, to my ear - and it carried on doing this for what sounded a long time, but turned out to be only about 10 minutes or so before just fading away really. Of course, I haven't yet listened to the other movements, I have to admit. The symphony has some attractive themes but strikes me as rather too rhapsodic for my taste. And the first 2 movements both marked "Largo"!!! (My music teacher once told me after I had handed in a piece marked Adagio: "Don't write adagios - learn to write allegros first." This was good advice, I think.) That said, I found the symphony more engaging than what I have heard of the symphony-concerto and there are certainly some passages of great beauty in it. I think it is better than musical wallpaper.

[FBerwald]

Strangely I had the exact opposite reaction - I found the Symphony meandering. The concerto was a more engaging.