I was thinking recently about concert performances I have attended where the composer was present, or rather, where I knew the composer to be present. Here is my list, as best I remember it:<\/p>\n
Don Banks (1923-1980)
\nSally Beamish (Hover<\/em>, London, 21 February 2024)
\nRichard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
\nPierre Boulez (1925-2016)
\nAnn Carr-Boyd (Britannia Fanfare<\/em><\/a>, 2012)
\nBarry Conyngham
\nPalle Dahlstedt<\/a>
\nJasper Eaglesfield (London, 13 June 2024)
\nDavid Fanshawe (1942-2010, African Sanctus<\/em>, Liverpool)
\nRolf Hind<\/a>
\nArchie John (East China Sea<\/em>, London, 7 June 2024)
\nRobin Holloway
\nKeith Humble (1927-1995)
\nGerard McBurney
\nJames MacMillan (premiere of “Precious in the sight of the Lord”<\/em>, Mass for the Fourth Centenary Celebration of the British Society of Jesus, 21 January 2023)
\nOlivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
\nStephen Montague (Piano Concerto<\/em>, BBC Proms, London)
\nNico Muhly<\/a> (premiere of Electric Violin Concerto<\/em>, performed by Thomas Gould, and premiere of opera, Two Boys, <\/em>at ENO, London)
\nOlli Mustonen<\/a> (playing his own Sonata for Violin and Piano<\/em> with Pekka Kuusisto, London 2013)
\nTristan Murail<\/a> (Reflections\/Reflets<\/em>, performed by the BBSO under Sakari Oramo, London 2013)
\nNicola Murphy (Wavelength<\/em>, Brisbane, 29 August 2024)
\nLoretta Notareschi<\/a>
\nJim Penberthy (1917-1999)
\nBehzad Ranjbaran<\/a> (premiere of Violin Concerto<\/em>, performed by Joshua Bell)
\nJohannes X. Schachtner<\/A>
\nPeter Sculthorpe (1929-2014)
\nLarry Sitsky
\nToru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
\nDavid Urquhart-Jones<\/a>
\nJames Wishart<\/a>
\nIannis Xenakis (1922-2001)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\nOf course, my presence at a performance does not constitute an endorsement of the music performed: some of the music of these composers I like or appreciate very much, and some I think is unpleasant, boring or otherwise of low quality. Although I generally prefer downtown and minimalist music, the music of the composers listed here also includes neo-romanticism (eg, Holloway, late Sculthorpe), abstract expressionism (eg, Penberthy, early Sculthorpe, Takemitsu), and uptown complexity (eg, Boulez, Muhly, Xenakis). And, I have not included in this list jazz performers, who almost always play some of their own compositions.<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\nFor Peter Sculthorpe, one occasion (of several where we have both been present) was a performance in January 1975 near Patonga, Broken Bay, Sydney, of his profound and achingly-beautiful Sun Music III<\/em>, in which I had the great good fortune, as second percussionist, to play the guiro. One has to wonder how the same person could compose the innovative Sun Music series of the 1960s and also the derivative, warmed-over, late-romantic tosh that Sculthorpe has written in recent years. Bill Burroughs would have seen it as a clear case of spirit possession.<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\nPOSTSCRIPT (2014-01-11):<\/strong><\/em> New Zealander Alannah Currie, of The Thompson Twins<\/a>, plays a guiro in their hit Hold Me Now<\/em> (1983). See video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was thinking recently about concert performances I have attended where the composer was present, or rather, where I knew the composer to be present. Here is my list, as best I remember it: Don Banks (1923-1980) Sally Beamish (Hover, London, 21 February 2024) Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) Ann Carr-Boyd (Britannia Fanfare, 2012) Barry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-music","p1","y2010","m03","d24","h12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13138,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions\/13138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}