Posted by Rick Denney on June 10, 2000 at 14:16:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Gene Pokorny Premieres Tuba Concerto posted by Alex C on June 10, 2000 at 10:49:17:
And the notion that it is used by composers mostly for comic or menacing effect just tells me that this reviewer needs to listen more and talk less.
Plus, by complaining that the music was "tonal and conservative" in the Shuman tradition (Shuman, tonal?), the reviewer exposes his apparent belief that a new work must be post-modern "wrong-note" music to have any depth. I'm quite sure this reviewer would also despise the Vaughan Williams (actually, he probably despises everything by Vaughan Williams, even before he hears it).
These prejudices override his notion that the instrument cannot soar. I'm reminded of Jacobs, in Song and Wind, saying that the tuba is the bass instrument, and does not impress by playing high, but rather by playing low. I agree. I listened to Velvet Brown, on her CD, play the high parts of the Broughton Sonata, that are so difficult for me to render musically, with so much apparent ease that the parts did not sound high. As much as I like the music, that seems to me a strategic error. Vaughan Williams avoided the mistake by starting the cadenzas in the first movement right down in the cellar, so that the high parts could be compared with something.
We all hate reviewers who seem to love everything without explaining why, but this reviewer seems like so many movie reviewers: Too cynical to enjoy himself. If he shows any enthusiasm at all, he loses credibility with jaded pseudo-intellectuals of the "culture" class. I wish we'd think less of culture and just enjoy the music. Does this reviwer enjoy music?
At least he had nice things to say about Gene Pokorny.
Rick "End of mini-sermon" Denney