Posted by Joe S. on January 09, 2000 at 02:13:33:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: John Williams Concerto posted by Richard on January 08, 2000 at 16:02:27:
Richard, I am with you. I sure am risking sounding like an "At least I can play it." snob, but indeed I can and I enjoyed performing it and listening to others performances of it (Pokorny-Chicago, Kniffin-Honolulu, Bobo-L.A., etc.). The first movement is just a little predictably tuba-istic (like the Vaughan Williams is), but the second movement (as I posted earlier) I believe is a milestone in composition for solo tuba. I am pretty tired of composers writing stuff for our instrument after asking some tuba player friend what they can do on their instrument. (I believe that stating that "[It sounds more like a violin concerto]" should be a great compliment, considering a lot of the predicable stuff that has been offered forth for our instrument.) That "writing of music that is performable" approach would not have offered forth the monumental concertos that are available in other instruments' repertoires. The last movement of the John Williams is not a monumental composition, but it IS decent and EXTREMELY exciting, particularly when played at a decent clip, like 150 or more (and very accurately with a lot of fire), rather than the marked 126-132.
Regardless of the quality of ANY piece, it must be "sold" to the audience by the performer. The VAUGHAN Williams is pretty cheezy, but John Fletcher did such a superb job of going even beyond "selling" it to all of us by performing it so well that he actually enamoured most of us with it in his famous recording, that many of us have been prompted to memorize-for-life the entire concerto. (I plead guilty. I'm quite sure that I could stand up tomorrow and play it, if I had to.)
It's pretty easy (and pretty popular today) to criticise modern-day composers of romantic music that utilizes key signatures, but before we individually jump on to the criticism bandwagon, let us, as individuals, show how to do it better. John Williams doesn't seem to be "shunned" by HIS collegues (who consist of those musically a cut above most of us, I would guess) for his compositional styles and techniques. I wouldn't criticise any of John Williams or his compositions in particular, any more that I would, say, Tommy Dorsey, for not being a good "bebop" trombonist.