Which composer do you reckon Steven Osborne is talking about here?

[stucoy]

'I once had to learn an orchestral part for a piece by a composer whom I won't name, and it was the most god-awful, complex thing I ever had to do. I just swore at the piano for two weeks trying to learn it! I absolutely don't see the point of this kind of music. It's one thing for a composer to think that the music should come before the consideratons of the performer, but when something is so perverse there comes a point when one starts to question if it's simple inspiration or if the composer is enjoying the feeling that it needs to be inscrutable and complex.'

Harrison Birtwistle sprang to my mind, but I'm not as knowledgable as you cats, so what do you think?

[retrouvailles]

Birtwistle's music is rather clotted and difficult to both understand and play, but I couldn't guess, really. Osborne isn't giving us enough clues. He also says that it is an orchestral part, which means that the piano isn't a soloist in the work. It is no doubt a modern work, though.

[ramseytheii]

I basically agree with the sentiment, but I don't think it should have been expressed.  A pianist shouldn't attempt to lecture composers.  Rather if a pianist feels a composer wrote music which is pointless to expend effort to learn, the pianist should just avoid it altogether.  That will be message enough, to the composer.

In the end one should be honest also with oneself.  I can think of many pieces, that at first I hated, which later I came to love most of all.  I can see that with students as well.  We should always follow what fascinates us, even if it seems repellant. 

Walter Ramsey

[richard black]

I basically agree with the sentiment, but I don't think it should have been expressed.

And I in turn disagree with you! For a start, Osborn was talking about orchestral piano, and the orchestral player doesn't get to choose repertoire like a soloist. And I think some composers deserve to be told in public just how little enjoyment the performers get from wading through their stuff. Indeed, I think Joe Public is entitled to be interested to find out just how popular, or otherwise, composers are with performers.

[antichrist]

some avant garde composers?

anyway do you have the answers

[retrouvailles]

some avant garde composers?

Why an avant-garde composer? He could be talking about the piano part in a Shostakovich symphony for all we know (that's probably not it). I don't think anyone but Osborne has the answer.