Bridgerton composer presents first concerto
OrchestrasA new American violin concerto was paired with a popular Czech evergreen in the post-Thanksgiving concert of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra led Markus Poschner Friday night.
The latter work was For a Younger Self, a violin concerto in all but name, by composer Kris Bowers. Best known for his film and television work (The Green Book, Bridgerton, King Richard),the concerto is Bowers’ first concert work for orchestra….
Read on here.
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bfol_s7Inw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6ugo5X078
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-317YiA4Zc
I don’t have much experience with writing violin concertos, because I only wrote two, but this is genuinely good music, apart from the places where the sentiment is rather cheap. There are not many composers today who could match this music…. Bowers completely ignores all that happened in the last century (except for the Russians) and just writes what he likes. It is quite telling that contemporary music capable of musical expressiveness now comes from the sphere of commercial ‘Gebrauchsmusik’. It shows the bankruptcy of the ‘serious music education trajectory’ with the attempts to write serious contemporary music, which nowadays seems to produce merely bland Glassy minimal products infested with pop and woke wrapping paper. This guy is really gifted, and it is regrettable he works for commerce….. and it is to be hoped that – if he would want to write serious concert music – he will be able to escape the smell of kitsch in future works, the Korngold problem, in short.
“it is regrettable he works for commerce”. Oh for the days of munificent aristocratic patrons, happy to employ music directors/composers among their servants.
The point is that composers as diverse in style as Gyorgy Ligeti and John Adams have been able to work freelance. Yes, generally on commissions ultimately paid by wealthy patrons, but not as their servants. And yes, the “smell of kitsch” is a potential pitfall in the non-commercial work of commercial composers.
Plenty of kitsch in Tchaikowsky and Rachmanninov, even in Mozart. If by kitsch you mean music that the great unwashed enjoy.
Kitsch is what makes the gestures of meaningful music without delivering it in terms of content.
Or: music that fakes emotion while remaining cold.
It is everything that is false in music.
Mozart and Tchaikovksy then…
Actually Bowers wrote a horn concerto in 2021. The LA phil premiered it in 2022 ish? with Andrew Bain as soloist. Perhaps Bowers has written other works for orchestra as well? Apparently the reviewer had incorrect information
This is true, however this violin concerto “For My Younger Self” was actually premiered in early 2020 by the American Youth Symphony (which I think was presented by the LA Phil, so maybe that led to the horn concerto.) That 2020 concert was the backdrop for the short documentary “A Concerto is a Conversation.” So this piece was his first piece for the concert hall… but this was not its first performance.
Markus Poschner and the Utah Symphony are scheduled to give two performances of this violin concerto by Kris Bowers (For a Younger Self) in May 2025, with the same soloist, Charles Yang. I will be attending both performances, and, hopefully, the final rehearsal.
I have listened to the commercial recording of the concerto with Yang and Carlos Izcaray leading the American Youth Symphony on Orchid Classics (released in late July 2024) many times, and I mostly agree with the assessment of John Bortslap: this is a compelling and accessible concerto, and the composer remains true to his own spirit and idiom. Bravo.
The Utah Symphony program pairs this “new” violin concerto with one of the most popular standard repertoire compositions of all time: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Naturally, this is also in an attempt to make attendance as substantial as possible, since for many concertgoers any new, modern piece is often viewed with skepticism — regardless of the background and idiom of the composer.
On the subject of Markus Poschner as conductor, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is only the second major US professional orchestra that he has conducted in his career.
It is good to read that his musical and conducting skills and persona made a most favorable impression on another orchestra and audience in a major market. The Utah Symphony chose very well and very wisely in selecting Markus Poschner as its next music director.
The Utah Symphony/Utah Opera (it has been a single, merged organization now for over 20 years), unlike the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, does not currently have the financial resources to film (and prioritize) high-end videos (with high-end audio) of many of its main classical series for placement on its own website for later subscription (paid) viewing.
However, with Poschner’s now more extensive background in making commercial audio recordings of orchestral works (especially Anton Bruckner), one hopes that his time as music director with the Utah Symphony can be more extensively documented on commercial audio releases.
While I would not favor an attempt at a continuation of the two commercial recordings of Mahler symphonies (Nos. 1 and 8 on Reference Recordings) made and released during now music director emeritus Thierry Fischer’s tenure, I would support another attempt at Mahler’s Symphony No.7 by Markus Poschner: he recorded a digital-only commercial release with the Bremen Philharmoniker, which was released in 2014.
And a final thought or two on the Dallas Symphony: its own in-house classical label, DSO Live, should focus on distributing its very few commercial audio releases just a bit more consistently and systematically. Its initial release under Fabio Luisi, of the 1st and 2nd symphonies of Brahms, was only available fleetingly on CD, although it is available on multiple Amazon websites, Spotify, and Apple Music for digital-only streaming. The most recent release (October 2023), of the Brahms Third Symphony, is also at least available for streaming and download through Presto Music and Presto Classical.
And as per its announcement of its 2024-2025 season on February 23 of this year, the orchestra is scheduled to record (all in 2025) three compositions this season for future commercial release: “Sophia Jani’s new work, Arlene Sierra’s Kiskadee and Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater.”