 prolongs the applause long enough for the conductor to return for a second bow. Not so here. Doubtless programming the work between two of Vaughan Williams's most popular pieces — the Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending — did Coult no favours. Those works tend to attract audiences who want misty, mellow romanticism, not abrasive, highly dissonant modernism.Even I — a fan of Coult's quirky and unpredictable music — found Pleasure Garden hard to like or fathom. It is inspired by historical and mythological 'interventions' by){kind=link}
★★★☆☆It’s rare for even a challenging piece of new orchestral music to fall quite so flat with an audience as Tom Coult’s newish violin concerto Pleasure Garden did in this London Philharmonic concert. Normally, politeness (at least) prolongs the applause long enough for the conductor to return for a second bow. Not so here. Doubtless programming the work between two of Vaughan Williams’s most popular pieces – the Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending – did Coult no favours. Those works tend to attract audiences who want misty, mellow romanticism, not abrasive, highly dissonant modernism.
Even I – a fan of Coult’s quirky and unpredictable music – found Pleasure Garden hard to like or fathom. It is inspired by historical and mythological “interventions” by
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