Alexander Comitas (1957) 2nd violin concerto (electronic)

February 3, 2012 at 4:13 PM

The Dutch composer Alexander Comitas (real name Eduard de Boer Youtube channel of Eduard de Boer/Alexander Comitas ) (1957) has problems to get his 2nd violin concerto played (I earlier uploaded his 1st violin concerto). The professional Brabants Orchestra must work together with another orchestra, because the government did not like to put money in 2 orchestra's because they think it is too expensive, so he made an electronic version of his 2th violin concerto with keyboard to give an impression of this never performed piece:

From Trevor Jennings
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 10:59 PM

Not a bad method of getting a new work known when all else fails. Our chamber orchestra conductor did similar with the commissioned double bass concerto he composed last year with a view to a first performance by the orchestra. He composed the entire score using Sibelius so it was a straightforward matter to convert it to MIDI and then burn it onto an audio CD as a WAV file. So before we started rehearsing we were each given a CD with the computer version of the concerto on it. It was obviously not the best way to hear it, but it was a great help in getting an initial understanding of the complex rhythmic, harmonic and melodic structures.

From Ian Stewart
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:06 AM

Sometime ago the leader of a professional saxophone quartet told me that they had learned a new work by listening to a computer generated CD. He said that their playing was unexpressive and mechanical. Then they decided to forget about the CD and just use the written music and then their natural musicality came through.

I flatly refuse to give computer simulations of any music I write, in my opinion it does not put the composition in a good light.

From Trevor Jennings
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 1:29 PM

Ian, we were given the MIDI CD of the d-b concerto just before the start of the summer break. When we started rehearsing the piece in September we were specifically asked not to listen to the CD any more, for the sort of reason you mentioned and because the composer expected he'd be making occasional alterations to the score during the rehearsals. But as I said, the CD did help us to have a useful understanding of the complexities of the piece in time for the rehearsals.
The first performance in November went very well.

From Ian Stewart
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 2:32 PM

Hi Trevor, I suppose that is a good compromise; listen to it to get to know the work, then forget about midi version and concentrate on the written parts.

Good also to hear of an orchestra playing more unusual concertos, such as one for double bass. Because of the tessitura I would guess it is not easy to write such a concerto. Also a much needed addition to the double bass repertoire.

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Alexander Comitas (1957) 2nd violin concerto (electronic)

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