Two Pairs of Ears and One Concerto

Compare and Contrast. Please hold your applause.

First up a quote from Richard Fairman's review of the new piano concerto by Marc-André Dalbavie. He writes:

"What we in fact heard was a fairly innocuous concerto, based on a handful of scintillating, if not very memorable ideas. Most of them involve light breezes ruffling the surface of the orchestral textures and flurries of notes in the piano part, an impressionist atmosphere that is well sustained and gives away Dalbavie's French nationality, with a hint of Messiaen in the more heavily perfumed harmonies." [italics mine] Read the rest here.

Next a quote from a review of the same work, same concert, by Ivan Hewett. He writes:

"In fact Dalbavie's concerto turned out to be an enjoyable mix of pianistic fireworks and deft orchestral writing with a distinctly American sheen....One of the pleasures of the concerto was the way it kept nudging towards being a piece of kitsch modernism, then pulling back at the last minute. What saved it was Dalbavie's keen constructivist intelligence. Underneath the sheen, you could feel a network of subtle connections being spun. " Read the rest here.