I went to this.  Would like to hear others' opinions of it.  La Mer I
thought was excellent save the first movement which just did not seem to
have enough direction for me - seemed somewhat lacking in structure.  Not
enough contrast of orchestral colour between the various points in it.
2nd and 3rd were excellent though.  The 3rd really took off and didn't
stop getting bigger and bigger, and faster and faster.  Definitely Mr.
Tortelier brought some things to my attention that I hadn't noticed before.

Sibelius was good too, much slower 1st movement than I have heard on my
Sakari Naxos CD.  2nd movement he really brought to life for me.  Some very
dramatic orchestration which is subtle and really came across live - very
evocative movement.  I don't like that tune in the 4th movement.  My friend
said it sounded like Stand by Your Man - just in there for potboiling it
seemed to me.

But to the main question I wanted to ask:  Boulanger.  Had never heard of
him (or her?) before tonight.  It was suggested (by me) that this person
was an impressionist.  Is this right? I find it hard to tell for sure
because of the very emotional nature of the text (Psalm 130 or 24 whichever
is longest).  The harmony however seemed to have a Debussyan colour to it
(more so in the shorter of the two).  I thought I might have heard the
influence of Durufle in it.  Seemed a very powerful piece though.  Anyway,
I would just like to know a bit about him, if somebody does.

Other thing was, on the radio, I heard 'Eternity Sunrise' by Taverner.
Having read some witty person's recipe for creating a piece of
post-modernist music, did I correctly identify this as post-modernism?
It was a waste of time whatever it was.  I have better things to do than
listen to a soprano screaming over the top of a few cheesy chords.  I could
have done it better myself.  (Now everyone tells me what a remarkable piece
it is and invites me to do just that...)

David Stewart
[log in to unmask]