Search - Boyer, London Symphony Orchestra :: The Music of Peter Boyer: Celebration Overture, Titanic, Three Olympians for String Orchestra, The Phoenix, Ghosts of Troy, New Beginnings

An exciting and important young composer

Michael E. Fine | Lake Ariel, PA United States | 06/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As the producer of this recording, I'm supposed to be prejuidiced. Despite the fact that producers tend to be most critical of their own work, I can wholeheartedly recommend this exciting debut disc by a rising star. Peter Boyer's music is brilliantly orchestrated, he has the gift of melody, and communicates his music in an exciting way with the world-class LSO. My own favorite pieces on the recording are the Brittenesque Three Olympians and darkly moving Ghosts of Troy but all the pieces are enjoyable and I guarantee you'll be humming the oboe solo in New Beginnings after hearing it. Here is a composer whose music is instantly accessible but grows with repeated hearings."

Mostly Glib, but Fun

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Peter Boyer writes in much the same style as Michael Torke, but repeated listening to it doesn't repay quite as well. His orchestration is not only competent, but often quite brilliant. He has a real flair for extrovert exposition, and like many current composers he does the eclectic bit pretty well, too. But there tends to be much the same kind of glibness as I find in the music of Michael Daugherty, with bits of Broadway and rock and even old popular tunes (for instance, in 'Titanic' we get bits of 'Alexander's Ragtime Band,' which is appropriate, since it was popular in 1912 when the Titanic went down). The string orchestra suite, 'Three Olympians,' is quite competent as well, but the materials are a bit trite. By far the most interesting work here is the fifteen-minute six-piece suite, 'Ghosts of Troy'; it is angular, fierce in spots, and strongly constructed. One couldn't help wonder about whether this was, to some extent, an homage to one of Boyer's teachers, John Corigliano, whose opera, 'Ghosts of Versailles,' makes use of the same kind of layering of soundplanes heard in Boyer's suite. Whether that's the case or not, the suite makes its effect. I particularly liked the atmospheric 'The supplication of King Priam,' and 'The Ransom and Burial of Hector' is moving.The opening and closing pieces here, 'Celebration Overture' and 'New Beginnings,' are immediately engaging examples of concert-opening fanfare-dominated overtures. Peter Boyer conducts the London Symphony in his works and does quite a good job, as do they. And the sound is all one could ask for.TT=68:40Scott Morrison"