Last week I was so hopeful that I had stumbled upon a new work to enjoy, to laud, but that was not to be. Nope, Rossini’s Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, was certainly enjoyable, but it was also unremarkable. Interestingly enough, I even found information that suggested that Rossini didn’t even compose the piece. My post and that info is HERE.
**sigh** I truly thought that “Rossini” plus “bassoon concerto” would equal a fun and lively gem of a piece. I did enjoy the work, but it did not add up to what I was expecting. As a result, I thought, “Well, let me find some other possibility of a fun and quirky piece,” and at some point I ran a Google-serach for a clarinet concerto by Béla Bartók, but there is no such piece. I ran a couple of other searches, and at one point I saw “Finzi Clarinet Concerto.” Finzi? Who the hell is “Finzi”? I’d never heard of him. It turns out that “Finzi” referred to Gerald Finzi, a British composer best known for his choral works. However, he also wrote other large-scale compositions for orchestra and a couple of concertos – one of them for the clarinet. “Well,” I thought, “let’s give it a try.” I did some research on the piece, and I found this description of Finzi’s work: “The concerto breathes an air of fresh spontaneity, moving through baroque-inflected pastoralism, aching Elgarian echoes and lively folk-inspired melody.” (HERE) Whoa. That’s some pretty heavy stuff. LOL. When I listened I certainly did not immediately think, “baroque-inflected pastoralism,” though I did hear some “Elgarian echoes” and I definitely heard folk-inspired melodies – particularly in the third movement. However, what I first heard when I listened to the piece was a close parallel to the movie soundtracks of Bernard Herrmann, particularly those he scored for Alfred Hitchcock. I suppose that Finzi could have been influenced by the works of Bernard Herrmann. Finzi’s clarinet concerto premiered in 1949, and this article, HERE, states that Herrmann’s music could be “broken down into three time periods”: Early (1941-1954) Middle (1955-1965) Late (1966-1976) Obviously, Finzi was not influenced by Herrmann’s work with Alfred HItchcock (which began in 1955 with “The Trouble with Harry”), but I suppose it’s possible that Finzi was influenced by Herrman’s early works. Of course, Herrman could have just as easily been influenced by Finzi. To be honest, it’s probably more likely that both Finzi and Herrmann were influenced by the prevailing systems and standards of the day in classical music. Anyway, that’s what I heard when I listened to Finzi’s concerto, a work akin to works by Bernard Herrmann – though not as memorable as Herrmann’s works. I did enjoy Finzi’s concerto, it was enjoyable. It just wasn’t particularly memorable.
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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