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Topic: Hough to premiere Tsontakis piano concerto (Read 1464 times)

shasta

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Posts: 492

Hough to premiere Tsontakis piano concerto

on: July 18, 2005, 05:43:56 PM

Hey guys
If any of you have the opportunity to attend and/or bootleg this concert, Stephen Hough is giving the world premiere of George Tsontakis' piano concerto in Dallas Texas this September. Please give those of us far away the full report!

This link is to Hough's 2005 performance schedule (which is ridiculous, by the way).
https://www.stephenhough.com/site/performances_2005.htm

Are any of you familiar with or have performed Tsontakis' works?

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xvimbi

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Posts: 2439

Re: Hough to premiere Tsontakis piano concerto

Reply #1 on: September 19, 2005, 09:48:32 PM

Yes, well, I was there. I didn't bootleg the concerto, though. It was... interesting. I had the chance to spend an evening with Hough, Tsontakis and a bunch of other people to talk about Tsontakis' compositions, hear his "Ghost Variations" (quite excellent, I hadn't heard them before), and just generally hang out.

The concerto itself is quite interesting. It definitely is technically difficult. There are few melodic lines, which is clearly the composer's choice. I'm terribly bad at remembering music that I have heard only once, but there will be a CD, because all four concerts were recorded. What stuck in my mind, though, was that a lot is very short, fragmented bursts consisting of short chord progressions. The greater part happens in the treble. This again seems to be the composer's style. I thought the orchestral part was less dissonant than the piano part and occasionally outright harmonious in the traditional sense. Overall, it was certainly a worthwhile experience, although not everybody thought so. That is to be expected when exposed to a brand-new, modern piece.

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