A couple days ago my attention was captured by a Wall Street Journal article highlighting the musical accomplishments of a young 15 year old musical prodigy, Alma Deutscher: a piano sonata at 6, a piano concerto for violin and orchestra at 9, a full-length opera by 12 and a complete concert at Carnegie Hall last December (age 14) with herself as both violin and piano soloist. I went online to see if I could find any videos. Oh my! For the next two hours I sat stunned, mesmerized, and enraptured as I listened to her performances and interviews.
Before the concluding performance of her Carnegie Hall program, she explained to the audience the odd beginning of her "Siren Sounds Waltz" which transitions from the cacophony of Viennese traffic sirens into music utterly celestial. Watch as she explains:
In case you didn't catch all she said in introducing the music, here is a partial transcript:
"Some people told me that nowadays melodies and beautiful harmonies are no longer acceptable in serious classical music. Because in the twenty-first century, music must reflect the ugliness of the modern world. Well, in this waltz, instead of trying to make my music artificially ugly in order to reflect the modern world, I went in exactly the opposite direction! I took some ugly sounds from the modern world - and I tried to turn them into something more beautiful through music.
Following are a few additional videos:
Below: Interview with Alma including piano and violin samples - Age 8
Below:
2017 - 12 years old A person commented: I am bewitched; astounded; changed forever. If you have not heard the name Alma Deutscher, remember that in 100 years she will be among the musical monoliths of our time and all will know the name Deutscher. At 11, having already composed of full-length opera, a piano and violin Concerto, and many other brilliant works of music. We are witnessing history in the making. A prodigious talent such as this comes along once a century if we are lucky,
Below:
2017 - Of her piano concerto below, someone commented: This would be a masterpiece even for a top, world-famous composer of any of the past centuries, at any age. This is not just good because a child composed it. This is music straight from the Heavens.
Below:
On Oct. 20, 2019, Alma received the European Culture Prize in a ceremony at the Vienna State Opera.
Her response at the awards ceremony anticipates sentiments she would express two months later when introducing her "Siren Sounds Waltz" at Carnegie Hall.
Until now, I have always composed melodies and harmonies just as they pour out from my heart. But I have often been told: "as a modern composer, you’ll soon have to forget your melodies, and concentrate on dissonance, as befits our modern age." But maybe this award today means that a more tolerant age is dawning, when melody and beauty will once again be permitted. Perhaps this is a message that there is more to European Culture than just dissonance. Perhaps there is also a place in European Culture for harmony. And how beautiful it would be if this message could go out into the world from Vienna, from the city of music."
Yes, it would indeed be a more beautiful world "when melody and beauty will once again be permitted." Alma Deutscher is on a mission to change the world. All power to her.