In a typically thoughtful contribution to my post Why not play the premier league composers more often? Richard Bratby - who is professionally involved in classical music - mused "speaking solely from my own experience - there is a very noticeable falling-off in ticket sales when a symphony orchestra programmes pre-Beethoven repertoire, irrespective of the quality of the performance or the music, or the energy with which it is marketed. But why?" Now Kea has answered Richard's question with the following comment: Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc, all sound more or less like film music (or -- more accurately -- film music sounds more or less like recycled bits of Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc) and therefore don't require any intellectual involvement or serious effort to listen to. Understanding the music of Bach, Mozart or Haydn, etc (or for that matter Schumann, Brahms, Webern, Cage, etc) actually requires people to listen actively rather than being pulled alo...
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I had occasion to listen to various Beethoven piano interpretations recently, and this is indeed a class in itself.
I've ordered that CD.
It is a measure of my conditioning and prejudice that I nearly didn't listen to it because of Suzie Quatro. It was only the knowledge that Michael Berkeley never makes a dud programme that prompted me to listen on earphones while cutting the lawn.
Glad I did ...
MB has an extroadinary ability to draw out of non profesional music lovers some remarkable insights.. often they are more interesting than composers say.