The conductor as composer

[Dundonnell]

CPO-the company that is currently issuing a set of the symphonies of Felix Weingartner-has plans to follow this with (at least) Bruno Walter's 1st Symphony.

Walter was a superb conductor but he gave up composition while still a young man(unlike Weingartner or Furtwangler). I wonder if he made the correct decision?

[vandermolen]

Interesting thread. Of the ones I know, Goosens stands out for me, his two symphonies are both excellent. Markevitch's Icarus is another work I return to.  Howard Hanson was a fine composer too. I am listening to his stirring "Bold Island Suite" at the moment. A great new discovery for me.

[Guido]

Have just listened to Bernstein's On the Waterfront - what a great piece! Certainly one of my favourite pieces of his along with The Meditations from Mass and the Clarinet Sonata. I think On the Waterfront is my favourite of his purely orchestral works (not with soloist), though the first Symphony is also very appealing. The way the whole twenty minute span of on the Waterfront pans out from a fairly limited amount of material is just brilliant, it never gets boring or overstays its welcome and it just makes such beautiful logical sense from start to finish. I love it!

[jochanaan]

...I really would like to hear the ... Dorati works...

The only work I know of Dorati's is a set of five pieces for unaccompanied oboe, written for Heinz Holliger (also a composer and conductor )--but they're doozies!  Not only technically awesome (I still can't play them as well as they really should be played), but musically very fine.

[vandermolen]

Have just listened to Bernstein's On the Waterfront - what a great piece! Certainly one of my favourite pieces of his along with The Meditations from Mass and the Clarinet Sonata. I think On the Waterfront is my favourite of his purely orchestral works (not with soloist), though the first Symphony is also very appealing. The way the whole twenty minute span of on the Waterfront pans out from a fairly limited amount of material is just brilliant, it never gets boring or overstays its welcome and it just makes such beautiful logical sense from start to finish. I love it!

Bernstein's "Jeremiah Symphony" and "On the Waterfront" are my two favourite scores by him. Both great works. I find the lamentation at the end of "Jeremiah" very moving.

[Guido]

Bernstein's "Jeremiah Symphony" and "On the Waterfront" are my two favourite scores by him. Both great works. I find the lamentation at the end of "Jeremiah" very moving.

Yes absolutely.

[Dundonnell]

Bernstein's "Jeremiah Symphony" and "On the Waterfront" are my two favourite scores by him. Both great works. I find the lamentation at the end of "Jeremiah" very moving.

Do you know-oh, of course you must-the Serenade for Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion? That work and the 'Chichester Psalms' are two Bernstein pieces I really love. The Serenade is really most beautiful!

[Superhorn]

   Conducting HAS become a separate discipline, and it's an extremely difficult job requiring a staggering amount of knowledge and technical skill.
   Learning the basic beat patterns is very easy, but the actual technique of beating time isoften extremely tricky, depending on the rhythmic complexity of the music.

   Plus the need for knowledge of bowing technique, and to be familiar with woodwinds,brass and percussion etc, the ability to correct faulty intonation and guage balances etc, and knowing how to rehearse efficintly and so many other factors.

  Other leading conductors of our time who have composed are Leif Segerstam, who believe it or not has actually written more symphonies than Haydn, Michael Tilson Thomas,Leonard Slatkin, Michael Gielen, and Victoria Bond.

[Guido]

There was an RCA CD of Maazel conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in his three compositions rather uninvitingly entitled Music for Cello and Orchestra, Op.10, Music for Flute and Orchestra, Op.11 and Music for Violin and Orchestra, Op.12.
Maazel himself was the violin soloist but the other works featured Mstislav Rostropovich and James Galway respectively.

I haven't heard the CD so cannot comment on the quality of these works. He certainly got two stellar soloists for the disc!

Predictably I only really know the cello work, but it is a very fine piece in my estimation - there's a particularly striking movement called Limbo. I just learned that it's being played next year in London so I am very excited! (Just saw that I already commented on the piece above!)

Previn's compositions are often very good indeed. I have quite a few songs of his which are consistently very fine, Tango Song and Dance played by and written for Anne Sophie Mutter, of which the central "Song" is utterly gorgeous, a piano concerto and a guitar concerto which I don't know well enough yet, some enchanting and lovely Diversions for orchestra (with lots of prominant solos - its sort of a concerto for orchestra I suppose) and a nice lyrical, if slightly unmemorable Violin sonata. This CD is an absolute gem though:


The cello sonata is a really great jazz inspired work - somewhat like Shostakovich or Hindemith in places, but Previn has his own voice and very characteristic harmonic and melodic gestures. The four songs for soprano, cello and piano are utterly sublime. Recommended wholeheartedly.

[some guy]

Peter Eötvös was a big presence in the Gaida/ISCM World Music Days festivals in Vilnius this year, both as conductor and composer.

On the way to my plane back to Berlin (and then Portland, OR), who should I see just sitting in the waiting area (for his plane back to Budapest) but Peter Eötvös and his wife!

He writes operas, too, which takes up a lot of time, I would think.

[vandermolen]

Other than Mahler, I think that Bernstein is my favourite conductor/composer (Jeremiah/On the Warterfront/West Side Story Symphonic Dances). I think that I listened to the Dorati symphonies on BIS but didn't make much of them. I did not enjoy the Klemperer symphonies, let alone the "Merry Waltz". Markevitch is another matter however; an interesting composer - especially "Icarus", an approachable modern work.  The two Goossens symphonies I rate very highly and Hanson I consider as a composer first of all (Symphony 3/Bold Island Suite are my favourites).
Lief Segerstram's symphonies don't mean much to me but Simon Rattle's two hour "Margaret Thatcher Symphony" is well worth investigation ( )

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Lief Segerstram's symphonies don't mean much to me but Simon Rattle's two hour "Margaret Thatcher Symphony" is well worth investigation

A tremendous score, indeed. The Poll Tax Fugue is the absolute high point for me. And the great solo at the end, where the soprano shrieks 'No! No! No!'

[knight66]

It certainly is a curious piece. He follows Schnittke in having two singers sing together one character. Schnittke did this to portray Satan, Rattle clearly feels much the same about Thatcher....he uses it in the movement entitled, 'We are now a grandmother'.

What happened to the promise of a thread about composers who conduct? Did it ever emerge?

Mike

[knight66]

A tremendous score, indeed. The Poll Tax Fugue is the absolute high point for me. And the great solo at the end, where the soprano shrieks 'No! No! No!'

Surely it is 'The Poll Tax Fudge'

Mike

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It certainly is a curious piece. He follows Schnittke in having two singers sing together one character. Schnittke did this to portray Satan, Rattle clearly feels much the same about Thatcher....he uses it in the movement entitled, 'We are now a grandmother'.

Surely it is 'The Poll Tax Fudge'

[vandermolen]

A tremendous score, indeed. The Poll Tax Fugue is the absolute high point for me. And the great solo at the end, where the soprano shrieks 'No! No! No!'

[Dundonnell]

It certainly is a curious piece. He follows Schnittke in having two singers sing together one character. Schnittke did this to portray Satan, Rattle clearly feels much the same about Thatcher....he uses it in the movement entitled, 'We are now a grandmother'.

What happened to the promise of a thread about composers who conduct? Did it ever emerge?

Mike

Ah! Thanks for reminding me about that promised thread I shall turn my mind to it shortly

I am totally confused about Rattle as a composer though! What ARE you all talking about?? Is this one of your elaborate jokes which I am too dense/obtuse to understand?

I have no great opinion of Rattle anyway. With the exceptions of his Mahler 2nd and 10th and Nicholas Maw's Odyssey, I don't think anything conducted by Rattle would be a first choice for me. Quite apart from the fact that he shows very little interest in British music

[Guido]

Ah! Thanks for reminding me about that promised thread I shall turn my mind to it shortly

I am totally confused about Rattle as a composer though! What ARE you all talking about?? Is this one of your elaborate jokes which I am too dense/obtuse to understand?

I have no great opinion of Rattle anyway. With the exceptions of his Mahler 2nd and 10th and Nicholas Maw's Odyssey, I don't think anything conducted by Rattle would be a first choice for me. Quite apart from the fact that he shows very little interest in British music

He's a champion of Ades and Adams, which is enough for me... his recording of Adams Harmonielehre is really great.

[Dundonnell]

Agree about Adams-though, obviously, he isn't British Ades is a composer whose work I don't know

[knight66]

I am totally confused about Rattle as a composer though! What ARE you all talking about?? Is this one of your elaborate jokes which I am too dense/obtuse to understand?

What can I say, other than....yes, though as to whether you are being dense or obtuse, I will not hazard an opinion.

Mike