Comments?
https://www.almadeutscher.com/carnegie (https://www.almadeutscher.com/carnegie)
I'm tired of pastiche, however well constructed. This young lady is suffering from over exposure IMHO. It does not bode well, especially if she starts to believe her own publicity.
I agree with Gareth but lets wait and see when and if she produces more mature and solid classical compositions. At present all her works fall into the light classical spectrum which is not a bad thing...
it is interesting.. the European siren.. it is a fun video.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with Alma composing in a light vein. Didn't some of us at least get hooked on classical music to begin with because of the tunes?
However, this blogpost suggests it may not only be innocent love of a specific style:
https://blogs.nmz.de/badblog/2019/12/11/dealing-with-guy-deutscher/
I don't know Mortiz Eggert so I can't say how trustworthy he is, but judging from a brief search he does have a pretty secure position in the German music establishment. That of course doesn't prevent him from being opinionated.
Still, in a sad way this reminds me of the story of Rued Langgaard. A domineering father forces his brilliant offspring to compose in a certain way which he believes to be "the only true way". In Langgaard's case it certainly resulted in a lot of misery, but he also did go on to write mature compositions.
I think it's fine if Alma Deutscher goes on composing in the way she does now if that's what she wants, but less so if it is the result of some doctrine.
I must add, the Siren Sounds waltz is charming.
Sadly, Moritz Eggert's article has the ring of truth about it and reveals Guy Deutscher as the intolerant (and I must say rather stupid) monster here - the real danger to his daughter - not Herr Eggert. It explains much of what I had suspected and confirms the uneasiness I had always felt about the "Alma adoration".
As you say, Gareth. Herr Eggert has clearly been the subject of a campaign of harassment by Deutscher senior, but it is a shame that he gave vent to such angry sarcasm at the end of his article, even if the urge to do so appears to be entirely justified.
Don't people love to talk and butt their heads? Unfortunately when they insist on carrying on their petty feuds on the internet we're all invited to join in the melee, and of course many do. Both parties should have realised that every word they publish inflicts further damage on Alma.
I rather liked the music - in a 'light' sort of way, of course.
I had the same impression.
And now she's 'viennesing' Beethoven...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR3T9OjoxSM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR3T9OjoxSM)
Just to cheer us all up...
Very pretty, very anodyne.
Exactly. Pretty, but pretty anonymous. Instantly forgettable.
If you want to hear someone who writes music of real character in a neo-Romantic yet individual style, listen to anything by Corentin Boissier on YouTube - he knocks Alma's pallid pastches of "beautiful music" into a cocked hat. Please let us waste no more time on this over-indulged and, in my opinion, insufferable young lady.
You're right, of course.
What Alma needs is to be cut free - to experience the real world instead of the sheltered, make-believe existence which she evidently inhabits. I have no argument with her wanting to write beautiful music in an ugly world, but there have to be real clouds in the sunniest skies, otherwise all we have is suffocating blandness. After all, she's now 15...
I second Alan. Lets concentrate on other composers who write music in the romantic medium. For instance what about Schmidt-Kowalski. I'd love to hear his unrecorded symphonies and concertos.
In his case, as with several others who might be mentioned, no longer present tense.
(I will not help, however. This exercise of finding composers who wrote in the style current in one specific area of place mostly in central Europe, and 100-150 years ago!, while interesting as a purely intellectual matter of trying to keep within the boundary conditions of "not getting this forum pissed off", is something I find extremely distasteful.
Let composers write as they will using the techniques they acquire, rather than insisting that Schumann compose in the style of middle JS Bach, or Mozart in the manner of the late Renaissance (again, that 100-150 year gap.) If that means we (not the forum, but the much much more general "we" - I have no intention of bringing them up again) get Feldman and Holmboe as well as Schmidt-Kowalski, well, then so we do!
...and with that..................
Quote from: FBerwald on Sunday 22 March 2020, 05:26
I second Alan. Lets concentrate on other composers who write music in the romantic medium. For instance what about Schmidt-Kowalski. I'd love to hear his unrecorded symphonies and concertos.
Not sure I understand this statement. Ok so other composers need more love fine, but what's wrong with noticing what she's done looking beyond any hype trains? Either you enjoy it or don't but you're effectively saying here "she's bad because she's popular" which is...a most annoying attitude.
I enjoyed the piece and if she keeps writing more like it, I wouldn't complain.
I mentioned Schmidt-Kowalski only as an alternate point of discussion (withing the remit of this forum!) as this topic is slightly turning into "bashing" territory (as with a previous topic reg. the same composer... ) If this young woman wants to write in any style she wants she should, but at present beyond the initial charm of her music there isn't much there beneath it which isn't a bad thing. But she's a young composer... who knows which road she will take. And even if she chooses to continue composing in her current style I won't complain either. I did mention I found the waltz charming. - Every composer MUST write what he/she wants to.
Quote from: TerraEpon on Monday 23 March 2020, 00:37
Quote from: FBerwald on Sunday 22 March 2020, 05:26
I second Alan. Lets concentrate on other composers who write music in the romantic medium. For instance what about Schmidt-Kowalski. I'd love to hear his unrecorded symphonies and concertos.
Not sure I understand this statement. Ok so other composers need more love fine, but what's wrong with noticing what she's done looking beyond any hype trains? Either you enjoy it or don't but you're effectively saying here "she's bad because she's popular" which is...a most annoying attitude.
I enjoyed the piece and if she keeps writing more like it, I wouldn't complain.
It's not "she's bad because she's popular" (which in honesty I rather doubt she is by recorded music standards). It's more of a "we're doubtful because of doubtful practices going on in the hype around a child". No one is doubting her talent (let alone calling her "bad") even if it yet has to produce something truly remarkable and individual. But with almost every child prodigy case, there appear to be shady goings-on in the background.
About the music, I
would complain if she continued in her present style because it's a bit of a dead end to me, and much too close to pastiche for my liking. The main reason why I'm such a Schmidt-Kowalski fan is that although he is writing using a late romantic palette, you would never be able to mistake one of his works for a nineteenth-century composition - it's very much of its time, if looking backward. And - hugely important - it shows that there is artistic potential in continuing to use that palette. I trust that in future, Deutscher will find her own voice more than is currently the case. If not, what is the point of going on?
Spot-on, Ilja. Thanks!
I agree wholeheartedly. Sorry if my earlier comments were rather grumpy but Ilja expresses and explains my feelings and fears precisely. (Plus the fact that I don't care to be lectured on the aesthetics of music by a cosseted 15 year-old, irrespective of how talented she is. Once she has matured and found her own voice I shall be more than happy to entertain her opinions.)
Yes, it's one thing to be 8, gifted and cosseted, but to be exactly the same at 15 is a bit worrying. Now she comes across as 'preachy', self-satisfied and conceited.
Here's her Ludwig Waltz No.2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvx4vB8Y-hI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvx4vB8Y-hI)
Oh dear...
How sickening! This will be a great embarrassment to her in later life - or it should be. The Ludwig Waltz itself, however, is charming in a milk-and-water way.
I absolutely loathed it. Too clever, not to say precious (in the wrong way) by half.
What's sickening is the two comments above me. I'm absolutely boggled by the animosity here. 'In the style of' arrangements are a pretty common thing, so if that's you're beef I guess you hate Peter Schickele too?
I mean no it's hardly the best thing in the world but I fail to see how it could even warrant such a response.
It's certainly enjoyable enough I'd listen to it again.
Schickele has his -own- style apart from his pastiche and humorous music published under a pseudonym (several very funny concerts of which I've attended - (my friends can call me Œd... !...)) - and I fail to see the comparison at all.
I suppose at least some of the animosity comes from the hype about her being a 21st century Mozart etc., plus the fact that she is felt to be lecturing people about what is good music and so on. But isn't the lecturing a rather typical thing for people her age? I have now been a teacher of 15-20-year-olds for about 25 years, and it is my experience that many people enter that period of their lives with quite strong opinions about what is right and wrong (sometimes based considerably on parents' opinions, which may of course also be the case here). Opinions which they then modify as they mature and get experience. I'd like to reserve judgment on Alma's music until in about 5 or 10 years when, as I wrote earlier, I hope she has found for herself the path she wants to pursue.
On another note, I also think that, at a time when classical music is in serious danger of losing its audience, any young person who prefers Beethoven to Bieber is a sign of hope.
The waltz itself I thought innocuous enough, and I can't really see that it does Miss Deutscher or anyone else any harm. As for the young lady's introductory remarks, I felt rather sad listening to them - she's like no 15 year old I've ever met.
It's not so much the music - which is utterly forgettable - but the context. A 15 year-old is trying to cheer us up with this? And the 'this' is part of a fairy-tale world which one can understand coming from an 8 year-old, but surely, surely she must have grown up - and away - a bit by now....
Yes. It is not unusual for mid to late teenagers to be highly opinionated, and subsequently to modify those opinions. That is part of growing up. However, to have those opinions broadcast widely on YouTube is a mistake, and one which, as I said, is likely to prove an embarrassment for Alma when she does grow up. That said, I must also endorse Alan's post. Enough said.
Ok I suppose I can understand the issue with her intro. It was a little silly.
I had heard of Alma almost a decade ago and then forgot about her since nothing she did afterwards crossed my path. But a week ago I ran across her opera Cinderella and decided to listen to some of her works and look up her compositions. In terms of her compositions listed on wiki she definitely seems to be slowing down the last 5 years or so as the majority are between 2014-19. Is the list accurate or highly incomplete? I'm not questioning that she is or was a musical prodigy although not at the level of Korngold for example.
As for her performances on violin and piano I could only find performances of her own works. Has she ever performed another composer's violin or piano works?
Regarding the music, I was strongly reminded of Victor Herbert operettas but I'm in the US so that may influence it. Her music seems to me to be very early Romantic say 1840-50 Romantic save for the waltzes. She is definitely a professional composer as the music flows along albeit facilely and mostly predictably. But still she avoids the worst faults of very young composers.
Anyway the apparent slowing down of her compositions and the lack of any major development has me concerned since she is 19 now. I would note that prior prodigies had the advantage of growing up with an established mainstream style to work with, which is definitely not the case now. Under the present anything goes environment and drift to popular music is it even possible to be a successful music prodigy?
Forgive me for merging these topics as we've been here before. The short answer is that we still haven't heard anything beyond what we might call her 'extended childhood' phase. Until something new and personal emerges from her, we won't be able to come to any firm judgment. But who knows? Perhaps she'll produce a Symphony in the grand tradition - a bit like Korngold's in F sharp major...
Ah OK no need to apologize. It's always a judgment call as to starting a new thread or reviving a long dormant one. For context for others my original thread title was: Is Alma Deutscher a musical prodigy fading?
Quote from: Maury on Monday 19 August 2024, 17:42Is Alma Deutscher a musical prodigy fading?
Nobody knows - yet. She's hardly a prodigy now at 19 anyway. Only time will tell.