Mark-Anthony Turnage: how I composed a fanfare for the Proms

When I was commissioned to write a piece of musics to open the 2012 proms I was inspired by Beethoven to make something messy, dirty and funWhat constitutes a good concert opener? My favourite is not actually for a concert, but an opera. I love the honking car horns in raucous counterpoint that start György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre. The music is irreverent; it doesn't behave itself, it wakes the audience up. I hate well-behaved fanfares, the sort with clever little harmonic sidesteps and neat ...

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