tpter1

I read the article, but need to re-read it. Here is another article I just saw that I thought relevant:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/enterta...n/14465610.htm

This throws another idea into the mix: that of accessibility to the general public. Although .mp3 files lose sound fidelity in the compression, would this maybe cause an upsurge in the sale of recorded classical music, and carry over into the ticket booth?

For me, since we live in a fairly remote area and good record stores do not exist within a few hours drive, it just might be a good thing.

TPT81

Matt-

Sorry for the delay in responding. I have been enjoying a nice holiday in china and a surprise visit from my girlfriend.

The entire classical music scene in China is somewhat new. For instance, in the last five years, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra did the Chinese premiers of pieces like Dvorak 8 and Prokofiev 5. The lack of exposure to western music is largely based in the country's history. i.e. the Cultural Revolution.

That being said, orchestras in China (outside of Hong Kong) don't draw large audiences period. Most audiences are about 500 max. However, they do seem to appreciate new music. We recently premeired a percussion concerto (Don't remember the composer's name) and it went over quite well. It's interesting, because Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and other "older" composers are equally new to many of the audience members. I will let you know in a couple weeks, when we do some Boulez, how the orchestra responds.

Zeb

brian moon

Let's hope that we find something better than this to sustain classical music.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/06/ar...ic/06chor.html

Tootsall

"Would the back row please stop dragging! You're behind the beat"

dedalus78

hi all,
I have played professionally in an Orchestra for the past 7 years. Without saying which orchestra, (although I am sure the diligent googler will be able to find out) I can say it is quite a good band; 100 players, we play alot of 'big' pieces with average to good conductors. I would suggest our standard is similar to a middle to high rung american orchestra; say, the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
As I percieve it, perhaps the biggest threat to the future of the symphony orchestra, along with the problems of creating and exposing audiences to new repertoire (HUGE PROBLEM), is the falling standard of musical interpretation. Its not just that the repertoire we are playing is getting older, but the music is becoming more boring.
Conductors, in my orchestra anyway, usually have a maximum of 3 days to rehearse a concert with the orchestra. The musicians, for the most part, can already play the piece, so presumably this time should be spent on the interpretation of the work. Yet this is rarely the case. At the end of the three days the difference between the first and last rehearsal is mostly cosmetic: a few adjustments of phrasing (maybe), improved ensemble, co-ordinated bowing. But rarely on any deeper level does a conductor individualize the sound of the orchestra.
And my orchestra, as I said, is quite good in the scheme of things. Our Guest conductors are usually chief conductors of comparable sized American or European Orchestras. Its just that they either don't have the time, or as I believe is often the case, don't know how to change the sound of the orchestras. The X symphony orchestra sounds pretty much the same, whether conducted by Maestri W, Y or Z.
There are of course exceptions, and my Orchestra has been privileged to work with in the last 10 years such Maestri as Janssons, Runiccles, Vanska, Lazerev and Mackerras (and more) which have been artistically very satisfying. However these experiences are the minority. On a worldwide level, there seems to be less and less conductors of the calibre of Bernstein or Carlos Kleiber or Karajan to interpret these great cultural artifacts and allow audiences to hear them, as if for the first time. The future of the Symphony Orchestra as defined by performances of the great works of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Mahler, et. al. is indeed under threat, with performances of these works becoming harder to distinguish from one another and a certain sameness of sound and interpretation taking over the world. Why would audiences want to go to a concert when it will be little different from the last time they heard the work?

A parallel problem is the homogenization of the musicians. 40 or 50 years ago you could listen to, say, the CSO, NYPO, BSO, tPO and tCO and immediately be able to tell which you were listening to. The players in those days were not taught to subliminate their innate musical personalities to any where near the same level as today. Training for musicians these days seems to be be a process of moving the student toward a certain averageness of expression, towards being more conventional. No doubt technical standards have raised enormously in the last 50 years, but I don't believe this has been matched by musical standards. Witness the parade of Julliard graduate violin soloists- all technically perect, and all interpretively pretty much the same, just as their teacher told them.

Again, much of what I am saying is generalization, and of course there are many wonderful instrumentalists around today. But, I think this conventional-ization is a major problem when the music needs to remain alive and interesting to attract new audiences. Especially as the distance between the time of the 'great works' and our own is increasing.

Thoughts?

TW

cornetguy

You are on the right track and I want to add another thought. The "Period Performance" people have bullied, or whatever, conductors of "modern instrument" groups into a certian amount of blandness with the way the market and selfrightously thump their chests (or their publicists) about "hear (blank) the way (blank) would have"

I read an interesting book by Taruskin "Text and Act." and the more I think about it the more I agree with him the "period performance" crowd are not about the performance practices of the 17th through 19th century, but of the aesthtics and so on of the 21st. I personally don't care for a lot of what the period instrument people put out. (am subjected to it on public radio) I find it to be rather unmusical.

Another thing that is killing audiences is that audiences recognize that they are being handed s--- and eventually stay away particularly with ticket prices being what they are. You know "I paid $70 bucks for that." for a concert that was routine, nothing special happened. Part of what is to blame is the mass production of concerts, and part is the acceptance of medocrity as a great (or even good) conductors.