Stuart Hancock (b.1975) Violin Concerto (2005)

[Alan Howe]

This is a genuinely romantic and tonal VC written in what one might describe as a John Williams-style film music idiom. I am thoroughly enjoying it!
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8689409--raptures

[Alan Howe]

Is that a good thing, though? 

[Gareth Vaughan]

I was wondering that too!

[Alan Howe]

Did anyone else buy this?

[matesic]

Alan asks "Is that a good thing?" This may not make perfect sense (I've only heard 3 short snippets of the piece so could well be misrepresenting it) but my entrenched resistance to retro music is because it patronizes the audience's taste, exploiting their nostalgia and leading them straight to their "safe place". Movement 1. - Stormy introduction immediately invoking Brahms' first piano concerto and all the associated connotations. Sibelian tremolandos, quickly resolving into a "big tune" (wouldn't it be more effective if we had to wait a bit, build up the anticipation? Nah, just give 'em what they like).  Movement 2. - a warm fireside feeling, Hovis for tea. Movement 3 - Echoes of Scottish Fantasy, kilts etc, probably develops into a general knees-up. In other words it's built out of favourite memories from past ages; mustn't risk disturbing the audience with unfamiliar sounds and ideas.

[Alan Howe]

I don't feel patronised by Hancock's VC any more than I do by Korngold's VC. And today, of course, anything goes in the classical sphere. Other peoples' safe space' may be Boulez, of course...

[matesic]

I'd have to concede it is a "good thing" if somebody likes it (and nobody dies)!

[Alan Howe]

Personally, I favour music that is connected with the past. But that's just me.

[eschiss1]

which leaves out very little music, though the manner of their connections to earlier music vary...

[Alan Howe]

It leaves out Boulez and his disciples.

[matesic]

Boulez and co are very much part of the past, I'd say! No chorus of approval necessary.

[Alan Howe]

Point is, though, that Boulez & co. set out to write music that was deliberately unconnected to the past. I'd say that was akin to inventing a new language that only its inventers can speak.

[Mark Thomas]

A diversion, I know, but it is worth watching David Hurwitz's demolition of Boulez in one of his latest YouTube videos. It's not kind (he describes Boulez as "a conductor who has not a shred of human emotion anywhere in his body"), but it is accurate I think and, therefor, funny in Hurwitz's usual vein. He is equally dismissive of Boulez the composer, describing his oeuvre as "largely junk", and takes a witheringly dismissive sideswipe at Harrison Birtwhistle while he's at it. Apologies for the detour.

As for Hancock's Violin Concerto etc. - it's basically film/tv music and a pleasant enough listen. I understand, but don't share, Matesic's aversion to retro music as a genre, but it seldom seems to be as convincing or satisfying as music written in a style which was the contemporary lingua franca. Whether that's because I already know that it's written "out of time", or because of some intrinsic flaw caused by being consciously retro, I don't know.

[Alan Howe]

Actually, I don't find Hancock's VC 'retro' at all. Contemporary film music composers such as John Williams have consciously perpetuated the tradition of Korngold et al into the modern era, resulting in the work of composers such as Hancock.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, I agree, in fact I wrote:

it's basically film/tv music