mazzrick

Ed,

When you mentioned festival programming, I was expecting something else. I was thinking Mozart festival, Tchaikovsky festival, American composers festival... that sort of thing. But clearly the LA Phil has had success with their seasons. What I see as a problem with these big-deal-events like these mixed media concerts is that if orchestras still wish to fill a full season of music, they can't be expending energy and resources like those concerts require, for every week for a full season. Obviously, shorter festivals like Ravinian, Salzburg, Lucerne, even Tanglewood (though they only have one large group) manage to pack this intensity in for a short time; but for orchestral seasons it's a bit harder.

My thought was less about the presentation (adding multi / visual media) but about the actual programming of the pieces themselves. I don't want to think that audiences need videos in order to like a piece of music. If Beethoven can stand alone, then newer works should be able to as well, or else it resembles an admission that these are substandard pieces of music. Sometimes it can be an art form of its own to add an additional sensory delivery to music and I love these types of things when they're done well but it shouldn't be a necessity.

I know that I will fall asleep from time to time in concerts of music that I don't know (shameful I know) but will be ever intent through music that I know because there is the knowledge of what lies ahead and a familiarity with what I'm hearing. I can't remember the last time I heard a 20th or 21st century piece twice other than the ones that I've played and I think that is a problem.

Matt